


Be Nice To Me

by Slurrrp69



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Abuse, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Child Neglect, Hurt Zuko (Avatar), Hurt/Comfort, M/M, No one else shows up until like chapter 11, Ozai (Avatar) Being a Terrible Parent, Past Child Abuse, Slow Burn, The first ten chapters are just Zuko tho, Torture, Zuko (Avatar)-centric, Zuko's Scar (Avatar)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:34:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 36,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25722910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Slurrrp69/pseuds/Slurrrp69
Summary: After the Agni Kai Ozai doesn't banish Zuko, he imprisons him.Now three years later, Zuko finally breaks out.Aka a Zuko leads a resistance army against the Fire Nation AU.Updates once a month
Relationships: Iroh & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), The Gaang & Zuko (Avatar), onesided Zuko/oc
Comments: 102
Kudos: 768





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fanfic I have written in literal years. So any comments to help my writing improve are very welcome.  
> The title is from a Front Bottoms song.

Zuko's cell was damp and cold. The stone walls are perpetually cool to the touch. Ice often forming in the corners of the room. The cell is left wet when the ice eventually melts, only to reform a couple days later. Zuko's inner flame shivers and shrivels.

Zuko exhaled slowly, he was currently sitting on the floor opposite the one metal door, doing his best to meditate. On his right was a small straw mattress, that once fit his 13 y.o. body, but now his feet hang over the edge onto the cold floor. He typically sleeps curled up in a fetus position, both to keep his body completely on the mattress, and to keep himself warm. At the farthest corner from the mattress was a bucket for his waste. The cell was a far cry from his chambers at the palace, as Zuko had despairingly thought when he first awoke. But over the course of the years he has gotten used to it. Chains connected his wrists to the wall behind him, just long enough for him to walk towards the door, but not much further.

There is a short knock on the metal door, alerting Zuko. The food hatch opens and a metal hand shoves a small tray through. Zuko gets up and collects the tray, sitting back down on the ground, on the tray was some grey grub, a couple of steamed vegetables, and a hot cup of tea.

As he eats he thinks back to his first few months here. Zuko had no recollection of how he got to this cell after the Agni Kai that had changed his life so drastically. And with no windows to see the sun, and guards bringing food sporadically, he quickly lost his sense of time.

At first Zuko reacted in rage. He screamed loudly of the injustices done to him, that they wouldn't get away with kidnapping and imprisoning a prince, that his father would hear about it and punish them so hard that they'd wished they had never been born. As the weeks dragged on, Zuko began to think that he would never get rescued, and when the weeks turned into months and years, Zuko thought that maybe he hadn't been kidnapped at all. It was hard to believe that his father would do this to him, imprison him here with these barbarians as guards. But surely as the Firelord he would've had no trouble finding him. The simple truth of the matter was that if father loved him, he would've saved him by now. The fact that Zuko is still stuck here can only mean that father doesn't care about his disappearance, or that he was the one that orchestrated it. But surely not, after all Zuko was still his son. Yes, it is much more likely that some enemies of the Fire Nation had kidnapped him and Ozai relied on Zuko to get himself out, surely this was a test for Zuko to show his strength. That must be it. Yet the more Zuko was beat and tortured by his guards, the less he believed this story.

Zuko had quickly learned to stay quiet as the guards seemed to take extra joy at punishing him for being loud or disrespectful or rude. And Zuko was plenty rude in the beginning. At first when he'd just scream and shout all day long, they'd come in with their batons and beat him till he was unconscious. He tried to fight back, he did his best, he had injured and burned many of them. Yet their numbers were always greater, and they kept him weak by limiting his food and his access to Agni. One time Zuko had gotten so pissed that he had accidentally lit his mattress on fire. That was the first time they took him out of the cell for a punishment. He had received thirty lashes for that. When the guards found out how effective that punishment was, they did it more often, for lesser and more meaningless reasons every time. Zuko suspected they got sick sense of glee from watching a strained tied up teenager screaming for help. He was sure that by now he had more scars on his back than regular skin. Of course those were probably inconsequential when compared to the scar on his face. Not that he knew what it looked like, he hadn't had access to a mirror since he arrived. But from the way it felt when he received it, and from the way the rubbery skin feels now, it can't look good.

And then of course, there were the nightmares. At first they were solely plagued by his father, by the hand that had so gently cradled his face only to then burn it. Over time he experienced more variety. From the guards' empty soulless helmets as they beat him senseless again. Or occasionally his sister would show up in his dreams, like she used to when he was younger, and play mind games with him. Sometimes he'd see the 41st division, and other soldiers the fire nation had lost, trying to drag him down into a deep abyss. But at the end of the day all his dreams would lead to Ozai, punishing him.

_You Will Learn Respect. And Suffering Will Be Your Teacher._

Zuko loved his father of course, but he also feared him. That is probably exactly how Ozai wants it.

After the first couple of months he had subconsciously learned to stay quiet during his nightmares. His guards often didn't like hearing his loud screams and pleads for mercy. They liked to wake him roughly and give him a real reason to cry, as they had often put it.

His inner flame no longer reacted to the rise of the sun, he still worked hard in order to maintain it. From meditating for hours at a time, to working out his physical body, doing pushups and crunches from the floor.

He has learned to conserve his inner flame, with the lack of contact to Agni and the lack of nutrition, his firebending had gotten much weaker. Azula would laugh at his firebending if she could see it now, not that she didn't laugh before. But she'd definitely laugh about it more. He mainly used his fire for two purposes. For one, to keep himself warm. The flimsy prison outfit he had woken up did a shitty job of that. The second use his flame had found, was melting the chains off of his wrists. It is a project that he had been working on for probably the last few months, maybe a year, and he was almost done.

He finishes eating and gets back to meditating, readying his inner fire for hopefully, the last round of chain melting. 

The metal clangs as it connects with the stone floor. Zuko rubs his sore wrists and looks at the door. He’s thought about this escape since the moment he got thrown in here, and he knows that despite his feat with the chains, he could never melt the thick metal door. Or at least, it would take him years to do so if the chains were any example.

Zuko knows he has to get this escape right, who knows what kind of punishment the guards would give him if he got caught. They might kill him. But he would rather die in an attempt at freedom than die imprisoned. So Zuko calms himself, he’s had a lot of time to practice patience, and he’ll use his practice now. So he continues on as he has before, working out, going through his katas, and meditating. Uncle might have a proverb about waiting for the right moment but Zuko isn’t Uncle, and he doesn’t know any.

It was two sleeps later that an opportunity presented itself, when a guard knocked to enter to empty out Zuko’s waste bucket. Zuko was ordered to the far wall, he dangled the chain a little to make it seem like he was complying, but moved to hide behind the door waiting for it to open.

The door opens and the guard comes in, Zuko swipes at his legs before he is even fully inside. The other two guards that were standing by the door rush in. He takes the baton from the fallen guard and starts trying to beat off the three guards. Zuko quickly realizes that he can’t defeat all three guards in his condition, and prolonging the fight would only bring more guards here. He jams the baton into the eye slit of one of their helmets and knocks that guard into the other two. All three guards trip over each other, Zuko takes the chance and runs towards the still open door and slams it shut behind him before any of them could get up. He doesn't even take a second to breathe before he starts running down the hall. He has no idea where he’s headed, completely following his instincts and his inner fire, hoping it’ll lead him towards Agni, despite their disconnect.

The halls are long, with no other cells and no other prisoners and no other guards. Occasionally he'll see a Fire Nation symbol hanging up on the walls, his hope about his kidnappers being enemies of the Fire Nation starts to dwindle. He can't think about this now. Zuko takes a series of inconsequential turns, eventually ending up at a hallway that leads towards a spiral staircase. He runs towards it, sore from all the bruises he’s received during the fight. Despite how much he'd worked out in his cell, he hadn’t run like this in forever. Regardless, he runs up, taking two steps at a time, too excited at the prospect of finally getting his freedom to stop for too long.

Zuko is only a couple of steps from reaching the top when two guards counter him. They had heard the rushed steps on the metal stairs and thought it unusual. One of the guards takes a firebender stance and throws a fireball at Zuko, Zuko ducks beneath the fireball and tackles that guard, throwing him over the railing.

Better to get rid of the firebender first.

The second guard stands shocked, but quickly gathers his wits and starts fighting Zuko in close combat. The guard starts forcing him down a couple of steps as they fight, but eventually loses his footing following Zuko. His helmet falls off and Zuko punches him square in the face, knocking him out. Zuko quickly takes the guards baton, and runs the rest of the way up the stairs.

As Zuko reaches the top floor he enters into another hallway. On his left a group of guards were running towards him. Zuko heads towards the right. At the end of the hall is another hall splitting left and right, both sides identical. He heads left. After another series of random turns, he had outrun the group of guards and passes by a large wooden door, rather than continuing to run down the hall, he decides to slowly open the door and peek inside. Inside the room is a large kitchen, seemingly empty. He enters, quietly closing the door behind him.

Zuko hadn’t noticed how hungry he was until now, he knew that he had been starved a lot in his cell in order to keep him weak and compliant. But he had never realized how hungry he truly was until he got out of that cell. Zuko begins opening all the cabinets madly, looking for anything he can eat and take with him on his escape. He finds a cabinet containing several loaves of bread and starts stuffing himself. He packs a couple of loaves in his pockets when he hears the heavy sound of armor clinking.

He holds his breath and hides behind the counter as he hears the guards running past. When Zuko stands back up a minute later, he hears a loud clattering behind him.

He turns around already in a fighting stance, behind him was what looked like a busboy. The boy stood stock still, an empty trash can rolling around his feet. His hands were empty, no weapons on his body. He was wearing simple brown trousers and brown tunic with several food related stains on it. Zuko saw the open door behind the bus boy that looked like it led outside. He must've just dropped off the trash. The boy was still frozen as Zuko slowly walks around the boy so that he could have a straight line towards the door. Once he had moved completely to the boys left side, Zuko makes a run for it. At his sudden movement, the boy let’s out a short cry of shock but does not run to stop the escaped prisoner or run to get the guards. The boy simply turns and watches him leave.

Zuko gets outside and immediately sees a high fence, about two stories tall, with two guards patrolling the length of the fence, their backs turned to him. Zuko looks behind himself to the open door and makes eye contact with the busboy, who gulps. He can’t hesitate any longer, he needs to escape now or he’d never get another chance. Zuko runs madly at the fence, the two guards hear his approach and turn around, readying themselves with spears in hand. About three feet before reaching the guards, Zuko jumps up, fire spitting from the soles of his bare feet and closed fists to launch him up, propelling him over the heads of the guards and their spears. He lands roughly on his knees on the other side of the fence. He’s breathing hard and his vision is swimming. He hasn’t used that amount of power in a long time. He turns his head behind him to see the two guards gaping. The guards quickly afterwards rush into action, running towards the nearest gate in order to capture the escapee. Zuko catches his breath for a bit longer, knowing these few seconds could be the reason he ends up back in that cell, but his legs are frozen and sore and hurting. The years of malnourishment, torture, and darkness had weakened him despite how strong he’s trying to be.

Eventually Zuko gets up and starts running down the mountainside from the prison that he had spent the last 3 years in. For the first time in a while, Zuko experiences freedom.

Sweet Freedom.


	2. Chapter 2

According to the sun, Zuko had escaped in the early morning. It was almost sunset and Zuko was still running through the forested hillside. Often pausing to hide in trees and bushes when he heard the slightest rustle, scared of being found or attacked and dragged back to his cell. This however most often ended with him face to face with several forest creatures rather than the scary, skull inspired helmets he had been expecting. He made many new friends that day.

Darkness covers the forest and Zuko doesn't have the energy to create even a simple guiding flame for himself. He decides there is no use in running lost in the woods at night. His body needs rest. He climbs a large oak tree, with large branches and dense foliage. He reaches midway up the tree when he decides he is high enough. Zuko rests against the trunk, and takes out one of the loaves, leaving the rest for later. 

* * *

The next day, Zuko wakes a couple hours after sunset. His night had been restless, even asleep he had to stay alert enough to protect himself if necessary. Thankfully, due to his light sleep, his mind had not relaxed enough in order to give him any more nightmares.

“It’s nice to know when it's night or day again,” Zuko says to a nearby bird, observing the sun through the leaves. The bird chirps in response. “I guess it’ll take me a little longer before I wake with the sun again”. Zuko takes out another loaf for breakfast, the bird chirps again. Zuko looks at the bird and back at his loaf. “I guess we can share a bit.” Zuko admits as he gives the bird a small piece of his breakfast.

He sits after eating and waits for an hour, listening for any guards searching the forest nearby. Zuko knows his worth as a prisoner, he knows they wouldn’t have just given up on finding him, yet he hears nothing but the typical forest sounds.

When Zuko escaped yesterday, he had noticed that his prison was located on the side of a small mountain, perhaps they were searching the other side of the mountain? Or maybe they had gone ahead and looked at any nearby towns. He had also noticed that he appeared to be the only prisoner in that entire prison, and judging by the flora and fauna surrounding the prison, Zuko could guess that he was still in the Fire Nation.

He has to accept that the chances of his father not being involved with his imprisonment are slim. Better to believe the worst and be pleasantly surprised, than to hold onto unfound hope and be disappointed. 

Besides if his father was involved, it would explain quite a few things. For instance, despite the prison being of unusually big size, especially considering it housed only one prisoner, there were surprisingly few guards. Throughout his escape he had barely encountered a dozen. A stranger would have to assume Zuko to be strong and an expert firebender just based on the fact that he is of royal descent. Father probably didn’t think his weak teenage son warranted more than a handful of guards.

Zuko's hand on the branch begins burning, feeling consumed with rage and betrayal. The birds nearby chirp in fear, Zuko stops when he notices. “Oh sorry” he apologizes to the bird, smiling nervously at being taken so suddenly out of his thoughts.

Zuko allows himself to have hope for his escape to continue succeeding, and slowly climbs off the tree. He begins wandering through the forest again. While Zuko had planned his escape for a long time now, he had never given a thought as to what to do after he escaped. He’s lost, both physically and mentally. 

For not the first time, Zuko wonders what Azula would do. ‘Well that's a ridiculous thought, father would’ve never done something like this to Azula’. So he thinks, what would Uncle do, ‘Probably drink some tea and spit some stupid proverbs and believe in the spirits to guide him or something stupid like that’. Zuko kicks a rock in his frustration, grunting when his bare foot makes contact with the rock, another bad idea from him. He quickly covers his mouth and stands still, waiting for any sign that any nearby soldier had heard him. When nothing happens, he continues on, still grumbling about how unhelpful his uncle was.

For now, Zuko decides to look for a small stream or river perhaps, to wash himself off. He’s only had access to a washcloth and bucket of water for the last three years, and he misses the royal baths he used to have. He wanders for a good few hours, though never finding a stream.

Instead he ends up stumbling upon a clearing with a small cottage. Azula’s voice runs through his head, telling him to break in, to make himself comfortable in the house that wasn't his, “You're a prince, Zuzu. Everything in the fire nation belongs to you” she screeches.

Azula’s voice often entered his mind, telling him how much of a failure he is, or what she would do in his situations. He once tried to take her advice while he was imprisoned, but that got him hanging by his wrists from the ceiling for a few days. He had to admit, they did seem to be able to get very creative with their punishments. He’s reluctant to ever listen to that voice again, yet even if he does his best to ignore it, her voice does not go away.

Zuko couldn’t take the time to think on how bad his mental health is to hallucinate his family members like this. He needed to focus on surviving and escaping to a place where he couldn’t be caught again. And then, when he’s in a safe place, he can think about what to do next.

Zuko looks at the cottage again, he opts to slowly approach it, looking in through the windows to see if anyone is home. When he finds that no one is, he decides to listen to Azula, just this once, he tells himself.

He manages to break the back door open with pure force, subtlety never was his strong suit. Inside, the cottage comprised of a small room that has a kitchen, a dining table, two couches, and of course the front door. To Zuko’s right, were two doors, one leading to a bathroom, the other to a bedroom. On the wall next to the bathroom door, dual dao blades were hung, engraved in the plaque beneath them it said "Teo & Katsu".

The first thing Zuko decides to do is take the well needed bath he deserves. He takes off his ragged prison uniform, looking in the mirror. 

Zuko was skinny, to say the least, several of his ribs protruding as well as his collarbones. The bruises from his escape were fresh and dark upon his body, joined by past wounds from the several punishments he had been through. He looks at his face, seeing the scar for the first time. It's big and ugly, he had never received any medical treatment for it, and the infection he got from the wound impacted his hearing and seeing more than the actual wound. Any vision out of his left eye was blurry, he could recognize no shapes through it, only light and colors. His hearing from his left ear was completely gone. He had adjusted to it mostly in the cell. But the cell was dark and never changing. The shock of finally being outside and only hearing and seeing half of it weighed heavy on him. The amount of times he had tripped while running through woods due to his lack of depth perception and balance were innumerable. He looks at his gaunt face, his protruding cheekbones and dark circles. The ragged, dirty hair that had grown down the length of his back. 

It wasn’t enough for his father to burn him, to traumatize him, to star in all of his nightmares. He had to brandish him as well, so that everytime he looked at himself he’d think of him. Every time anybody else looked at him, they’d see the abuse clear on his face and body, see how **weak** he was. Zuko has to tear himself away from the mirror before his thoughts spiral into a never ending torture of self hatred.

He enters the tub of warm water. Sighing at a pleasure that he had missed so. The water is murky and bloody from dried wounds as Zuko washes himself. He attempts to brush through his almost waist length hair with his hands but after years of no care, it is a tangled mess that is almost impossible to brush through, any attempts end with him pulling his hair out. 

When he gets out he dries off with a nearby towel, and enters into the bedroom, he searches through the dresser to find himself some trousers, a tunic, and hoodie that fit him. He enters the kitchen, picking up a knife out of a drawer. And swiftly cuts his hair around his shoulders, disposing of the cut hair in the trash.

Zuko leaves the knife in the sink, roaming through the cabinets for food to eat. He eats some fresh fruit and meat he finds. A strange combination, but both foods that he had desperately missed in his time imprisoned.

With a full stomach, he lays down on the couch, resting his eyes. He is near sleep when he hears footsteps approaching the front door of the cottage. Before he could even register what was going on, Zuko had run out the back door, leaving it wide open. He quickly climbs a tree in the backyard, hoping the homeowner will overlook him up there. 

An older looking man steps out of the back door a few moments later. The man had graying short hair on the sides of his head, yet was bald on top. He was thin, and frail, and short, positively swaddled in the robes he had on. The man does not overlook him, in fact he comes out and looks right at him. Zuko and the man make an uncomfortable amount of eye contact before the man heads back inside.

Azula’s voice rings through his head again.

“You know what you have to do now right Zuzu? You gotta kill him. He’ll rat you out, you’ve gotta take care of him before that happens!”

Perhaps if this was the real Azula he would’ve followed her advice blindly, in an effort to be more like her, to get Father to love him. But he’s since realized that the Azula he’s invented in his head is a lot less crafty and cunning. Which just goes to show another shortcoming of Zuko’s. He also no longer has to compete for his father’s love, as it is clear that that is something he does not have and probably will never have. He wonders if his father ever loved him.

Zuko opts to ignore his sister and his insecurities, in favor of waiting in the trees for an opportune moment to slip away. Instead the old man comes back out, with a bowl of what looks like broth in his hands.

He bends down and leaves the bowl underneath the tree. The old man backs up a few steps so he can look at Zuko better and smiles nervously. “Uh hi there,” the old man says, “I-I thought you might be hungry. Its uh, its broth, with crococat meat” he chuckles, wringing his hands. Zuko doesn’t respond.

The man nods slowly and turns his head to the side. “I uh I’ll leave this right here. Feel free to, you know, eat” The old man turns around and heads back into the cottage.

Zuko does not get down from the tree. Contrary to what his sister and father might think, he is not a complete idiot. 

The old man comes back out near sunset. Zuko had not moved in that time. The bowl was also left untouched. The old man goes over to pick up the bowl. The man appears to ponder about something for a moment before speaking up,“I know you’re that escaped prisoner” he says, “They're looking for you all over town. Got your wanted posters everywhere. And well...I also saw the prison uniform in the trash” he sighs, “Maybe next time cover your tracks better”. Zuko is filled with shame at having been discovered so soon. He had expected the man to leave his cottage to call the soldiers, even if he didn't know who Zuko was, and Zuko would have taken that moment to leave. Now he expects he'll wait here until nighttime to escape. Azula's voice runs back through his head, telling him there is no need to escape, he only had to do one thing to be able to stay the night in a nice warm bed with a full belly.

The old man begins to walk back towards the cottage but stops midway and turns back around “I won’t turn you in. I promise. If the broth wasn’t to your liking, I’ll make something different for dinner.” The old man says finally as he turns back around and re-enters his cottage.

Zuko considers this, he had been hoping to leave without commotion, but perhaps... He’s really hungry, and it’s only one old man. He could probably take him if he had to. Truthfully he knows better than to underestimate older people, his own Uncle being a prime example. But he’s hungry and this man seems kind enough by the fact that he hadn't tried to snitch to any soldiers yet. Even if he couldn’t defeat the man in a fight like Azula was telling him to, Zuko was confident that he would be able to run away if the situation became dangerous.

Zuko gets down from the tree, and, despite having been able to see from above that no one had entered or approached the cottage, he still walked slowly, cautiously, hyper aware of every noise.

He stands at the border of the cottage, trying to keep an eye both behind and infront of him. The old man was standing in the kitchen, he turned towards Zuko, “You can close the door behind you. Keep the mosquitos out.” Zuko closes the door, relieved at not having to watch his back anymore, but worried about being trapped inside with the man. The old man puts two plates down on the measly dining table. “Come sit. It’ll be much more comfortable than that tree you were crouching in like a gargoyle.” Zuko stops hovering at the door and moves to sit in the chair opposite the man. “I hope it's to your liking” he says.

Along with the plates and utensils, two mugs were sitting on the table. Zuko's mug looked to have been homemade, as well as painted on by a small child. On the side of the mug was a large smiley face and a flower, next to the painting it said “Teo, age 6”.

He looks down at his food, then gazes up at the man, the man returns his stare. “It’s not poisoned if that's what you’re wondering.” the old man says. Zuko looks at the utensils, he hadn’t used any in years, but he figures it can’t be too hard. Zuko picks up the fork and stabs it through the meat, picking up the whole piece and taking a bite out of it. Not exactly what he’d been taught to do by his etiquette teachers, but it’ll do. His action seems to amuse the old man who huffs and begins eating.

After a few good minutes of stunted silence, Zuko dares to speak “Why are you helping me? " he asks.

The old man chews thoughtfully before answering, “How much snooping around did you do in here before.” He asks him. Zuko’s confused, he honestly hadn’t thought of doing any snooping. The quaint cottage didn't seem like it would warrant any special attention.

Azula would’ve searched the place up and down

When Zuko doesn't answer, the old man continues. “Why’d they have you locked up up there anyways? You must’ve done something real bad, huh?”. Zuko’s lack of response seemed to make the man only more willing to talk, as old men are wont to do, Zuko thinks.

“A couple of years ago my wife passed on. She got real ill from the sickness that is in the rivers. The factories they put at the east end have been real bad for all of us living in the town. They've been doing it more and more now. More factories in our peaceful little town to fuel the war. They poison our rivers and lakes. Kill our fish and ruin any good crop. Making an already poor town even poorer. The only thing our little village is good for anymore is to produce more soldiers. Every year they draft them younger and younger.” 

“They took both of my boys” the old man chokes out, “Soon as they were old enough. Vultures they are. The whole damn Fire Nation is.” The old man wipes a couple tears from his wrinkly eyes.

Zuko was shocked upon hearing this, had the nation changed so drastically while he was gone? Zuko always thought that as a royal his biggest priority was to keep his people safe and happy, he could not understand why anyone would allow their citizens to suffer to the point where they abhor the nation. Zuko assumes the man could be lying, yet why would he? After all, the treasonous way the man was talking could land him in a coal mining camp.“Why are you telling me this?” Zuko asks.

“Who are you going to tell anyway”.

The man was right. Zuko couldn’t snitch on him without landing himself back in prison. He suspected that perhaps the old man's reasons for talking to him were purely selfish. The man has wanted to admit these things for a while now, and never had someone he knew wouldn't (or couldn't) sell him out for saying them. Yet Zuko couldn't begin trusting this man yet, he could be lying to lower Zuko's guard, who knew what his real goals were.

“I had already hated the nation and this war when they killed my wife. Having both of my sons returned home fit for their tombs didn’t help any” he spits angrily. “They give me these medals and a bagful of coins, as if it would replace them.” The old man silently weeps into his hand. Zuko doesn't know how to react, he still cannot tell whether the man is lying or not, and he had also never been the one to comfort others. Zuko reaches out to pat the man on his shoulder in solidarity but before he could the man stands up, taking his and Zuko’s plate with him. He starts cleaning them in the sink. Zuko stands up to help dry the plates.

“You didn't tell me what you were in for”

Zuko looks at him sideways. “Promise you won't tell?”

“Cross my heart” He says.

“I pissed someone off at the top, at the very top. Pissed them off badly.” Zuko hesitates before saying the next part “I lost an Agni Kai”.

“Huh,” the old man says. “I guess you got lucky then, huh” he says lightheartedly. Any fire nation citizen knows that most Agni Kais end in death. Zuko standing before him means that he had received mercy, something he couldn't relate to.

“Sometimes I wish I weren’t this lucky” Zuko whispers, if he weren’t lucky then maybe he’d have died years ago, at the Agni Kai, or of the infection later. It would’ve saved him a lot of hurt.

The old man looks at him, "My name’s Nigai” he says, holding out his hand.

“Zuko”, Zuko responds, shaking it.

The man's eyes widened briefly. It was a blink and you’ll miss it kind of reaction. But Zuko had spent so long alone that he now pays intense attention to every interaction he has with others. He had to become more observant in order to know how to deal with the guards in a way that would lead to the least amount of bruises.He doesn’t know exactly what the old man's reaction means yet. But the fact that he knows it happened already helps him a lot.

The old man turns back towards him, “Why don't you spend the night here? I don't have an extra bed, but the couch should be big enough.”

Zuko nods, Agni had long set by now. There was nowhere else he could go for the night other than back in the woods, which, while miles more pleasant than his cell, was probably nothing in comparison to a warm home and a couch. Zuko thanks himself for being a light sleeper, he’d be able to make sure Nigai wouldn't secretly sneak out and sell him out.

The two men speak no more as they prepare for the night. Nigai gives Zuko a threadbare blanket and a flat pillow. Not maliciously, this appeared to be all he had that he could share.

Zuko almost instantly falls into a fitful sleep. Nerves buzzing from the adrenaline of the last two days, as well as anxiety for what the future holds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so glad you all liked my first chapter! Again any and all comments are appreciated.  
> This chapter was honestly a little slower to write, I still don't feel like its exactly what I wanted, but I got other chapters to get to. If I ever figure out what felt so wrong about this chapter I'll go back and change it.  
> I also think something that is important to note in these early chapter is how often Zuko thinks about Ozai and Azula, especially in situations that totally do not warrant them being mentioned. This is gonna change as Zuko begins to heal from his trauma and grow to be his own person, rather than just Azula's brother or Ozai's son, which is how he sees himself now.  
> I tried to do my best with accurate quotation and punctuation.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was supposed to be two different chapters but I decided to combine them, it just felt better this way.  
> TW: suicidal thoughts, panic attack

Zuko wakes to a loud pounding on the door.

“Fire Nation Officials, Open Up!!”

Zuko stands abruptly, panicked, as the old man shuffles out of the bedroom still in his nightclothes. “Coming!” He shouts.

Nigai reaches the door, he turns around and makes eye contact with Zuko. Zuko understands what he’s trying to say and swiftly hides behind the couch as Nigai turns back around to open the door.

Zuko knows he should be paying attention to what is happening at the door, yet he can’t help letting his mind wander.

Did Nigai sell him out after all? How did he contact them? Zuko would’ve noticed if he'd left through either the front or back door, maybe he'd left through a window in the bedroom, or maybe he had a messenger hawk that he sent. Oh Agni, Zuko shouldn't have mentioned a reward, that has to be why the old man went behind his word and sold him out. He was such a fool, he should've disappeared during the night so that Nigai couldn't do this. 

Zuko was pulling out his hair, his breath coming faster, he ripped his hands from his hair to cover his mouth. He'd have to go back to his cell, and they'd give him extra strong chains this time, and more guards, and it'd take him years, decades, to escape. Or maybe he'd never escape. And the guards would be so harsh, and maybe father himself would come, or Azula, and they'd punish him. He couldn't take that, he knew he wouldn't be able to take that. He'd have to kill himself beforehand. He couldn't go back. To be tortured, beaten, harassed for the rest of his life. No, he wouldn't let himself be caught, he'd continue running or die trying. Never again was he going to go back to that cell. A death with no honor. Zuko huffs. How befitting. His father would laugh at him, tell him his whole life has been worthless, his existence meaningless. After all, Zuko was just lucky to be born. His whole life is riddled with failures and disappointments. Because Zuko was so bad. So bad at everything. Bad at firebending, bad at fighting, bad at lying, bad at politics. Zuko really should just die. Why wait to get captured? Just die now, his life has no meaning anyways.

Not even the loud slam of the front door closing was enough to take Zuko out of his thoughts. Nigai went over to Zuko who was still crouching behind the couch. As he approaches he hears the rapid breathing, he sees Zuko on the floor, his whole body trembling, his eyes glazed and unfocused.

Nigai crouches down in front of him. “Zuko?“ he asks him quietly. But it seemed like Zuko wasn’t listening to him. Nigai touches him on the shoulder, attempting to grab his attention. Zuko‘s eyes focus, he lets out a short cry as he falls onto the ground. Looking at Nigai with fear. Despite seeming a bit more clear in his surroundings the boy was still whimpering and trembling, not moving from where he fell as he looked at Nigai.

“Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you.“ Nigai says, “They're gone now“, when Zuko still doesn't answer or move. Nigai stands back up. “I'll make some breakfast.”

As the older man prepares a simple breakfast for them both, Zuko slowly gets back to himself. Immediately Zuko's face reddens in embarrassment, how could he appear so weak in front of someone else like that? Pathetic, Zuko.

Zuko drags himself from his thoughts before he could spiral again, he looks around, remembering the circumstances that led to his panic attack. The soldiers at the door. They were gone. And Nigai was back in the kitchen, cooking.

“You didn’t sell me out,“ Zuko states.

“And let you spill the beans about all the dissent I carry for the nation? Just harboring you for a single night could have sent me to my execution.“

“So why? You might hate the fire nation but you don't seem suicidal.“ Zuko says. The man can’t have just housed him because he was lonely. Because he needed someone to talk to about his hate for the nation. He has ulterior motives, Zuko is sure of that. “Why’d you help me at all?”

The old man sighs, “Because I still have hope. For our nation. For our future“

“...You know who I am“.

“Zuko is quite a rare name“ he answers.

Zuko stares at him as Nigai places the eggs and sausage on the plates.

“So you think what? That I can go back to the palace and convince my father to end the war? So that they can stop ruining your town and killing your kids? If you haven't noticed, I've been imprisoned for the past few years. I can't do anything! If my father cared at all about me, I would be back in Caldera now!" Zuko shouts. And it hurts to admit, especially out loud. But it's a fact that Zuko can't deny any longer, if his father loved him, he wouldn’t still be here. 

Nigai brings both plates to the table. The tea kettle screams, and with shaking hands the old man pours the tea into two mugs.

He brings both mugs over to the table and sits down. He gestures for Zuko to sit down opposite him.

"I remember when you disappeared, almost three years ago now.“ he says. Three years, Zuko thinks, he knew he'd been gone for a while but he didn't know definitively how long. "My younger son was the same age as you, you know?“ he takes a long sip from his mug. "I guess I was sort of hoping that, now that the crown prince was back, maybe something could change…“ he says.

Zuko might hate his father, and he might have survived fueled solely by rage and anger, but he still couldn't consider acting on any of the emotions he was feeling. His father...he is powerful, he's the goddamn Fire Lord. And who's Zuko? A prince? Not any more, hes just a sixteen year old kid with no power. What was Zuko supposed to do against the Fire Lord? People couldn't actually expect him to be able to do anything on his own?

Nigai interrupts his thoughts, “Listen, if you would rather just disappear off the face of the earth then I'd accept that. I’d keep my mouth shut about all this. You could stay here, with me. I'm sure with time the soldiers would stop looking for you. I used to have a bigger house in town for me and my family. We could move back there. I’d start working again, or maybe you. I’m sure we could find a way for you to stay here.” he says.

Zuko doesn't know what to think of that either. He can’t imagine staying here, with Nigai, and playing family for the rest of his life. He can’t go back home to his father and sister and pretend nothing happened, and yet, when given a chance to disappear forever, he doesn’t want to take it. Maybe it’s just because he doesn't want to stay in this town, it's too much of a risk, too close to the place that had held him captured for three years. Or maybe it's because of Nigai, the man just seemed a little too open to talking, to helping. Maybe Zuko is just a little paranoid about trusting people, but as far as he knows, being paranoid keeps him safe.

“There's no need to think so intensely about it now. The war has been going on for a century, nothing would change if you took a few more days to get your head on straight. And if you decide to stay here, that's fine too.“ Nigai smiles at him as he begins eating his breakfast.

Zuko sits back, silent during the rest of breakfast.

* * *

Zuko had spent most of the previous day eating, resting, and training. Getting back to the form and body he should be in at sixteen years old. Though one day of actual nutrition and exercise not hindered by chains has not changed his body much.

The old man had watched him practicing his katas bemusedly. Never commenting or correcting him when he inevitably messed up. While it was nicer than his childhood trainers, he still felt unnerved at being watched.

When Zuko had gotten to his swordsman katas, which he did sword-less, the old man rushed inside. Clambering back outside with the dual dao in his hands. He handed it to Zuko, for him to practice with a real blade. Zuko had been suspicious at first about being given a weapon by a stranger but he continued his training with no incident. 

The day had passed without any further incidents and Zuko had spent another night on Nigai’s couch. During breakfast Nigai informed him that he needed to head into town today in order to buy their next couple meals and Zuko was welcome to come along or stay home. Zuko thinks Nigai expected him to stay home, he seemed pretty shocked when he said he was going into town. Zuko knew it might be dangerous heading into town so shortly after his escape. 

“Oh it's definitely dangerous,” Azula cackles in the back of his mind, “You’ll be back in that cell soon”.

But he'd wear his hood low and keep his head down, you wouldn’t be able to recognize him unless you looked real closely, and he wouldn't allow anyone to come so close to him.

“As if that will help any! You'll mess up Zuzu, you always do“.

“Shut up“ Zuko grunts to himself.

He wanted to see the town. Wanted to see how it was doing, how the Fire Nation was doing. Nigai had painted a very detailed picture, but Zuko wanted to see for himself if the war had truly damaged its own citizens as much as he was saying. Right now he could be satisfied hiding away for the rest of his life knowing that his father's only victim has been him. But if the fire nation is truly being so cruel to its own people...

If the town was normal after all, and Nigai was just bitter, then... Zuko would move on, he wouldn’t stay here, but he wouldn’t go back to the palace either. He’d probably move to some other backwoods town, raising deer dogs and puma goats.

And if the war really had ravished the town... he'd see what he'd do then.

* * *

Zuko and Nigai reached the town, Nigai riding on a dragon moose, Zuko on foot. There was a small sign with the word "Mias" written on it a couple feet before the entrance.

The town… could hardly be called a town. It looked like a tornado had come through, several times, and the town had never been repaired. There was only one street where the buildings were still completely intact. The houses on the side streets, if they could even be called streets, were decrepit. Roofs filled with holes, doors and windows missing. The only building that looked like it had never even seen the war was the brothel, which the soldiers were known to frequent. A strong stench of mold and rot permeated the air. Zuko grunts, disgusted.

They bind the dragon moose at the east entrance of the town and Nigai leads him over to one of the houses on the main street. The house had many stands in front of its door filled with grocery and produce.

Nigai starts filling their rucksacks as an older woman comes out of the house and walks up to them. “Been a while Nigai” she chuckles.

“Been barely a few days Sue”

“Every day without you seems like a week,” Sue flirts with a wink. She seems to notice Zuko now for the first time. “Who's with you?” she asks Nigai. Zuko was standing a couple feet away from the stands of fruits and vegetables, he turned towards Nigai and the woman, when he hears them mention him. The hood still in place to shield his eyes and noticeable scar from the view of strangers.

“That’s my nephew. From my late wife’s side. He just came by for a week to check in on me. Apparently the family is worried about me being on my own”, Nigai guffaws, as if affronted about needing someone to take care of him.

“Oh how sweet,” she answers back, she steps forward to meet Zuko but he flinches. She stops, looking at him for a moment. She turns back to Nigai, “Oh, but you know, your family shouldn't have sent poor-”

“-Lee, his name is Lee.” Nigai finishes.

“Well they shouldn't have sent Lee all the way here. You know if you ever needed anything you could always come and visit me.” She winks

Nigai chuckles, “Of course I know that”

Zuko tunes out their polite small talk as he notices a wanted poster slapped onto the side of the grocer’s building. It had a sketching of his face on it, still with his longer hair. It didn't list his name or any distinguishing non-physical remarks about him, no hint as to why the fire nation was searching for him, but it did offer a reward of 100 gold coins for his return, and 1 silver coin for every helpful clue as to where he might be. He self consciously lowers his hood. No matter what Azula said, he wouldn't be caught here.

After Nigai and Sue finish flirting, and Nigai has paid for all the items in the rucksack, Zuko and him head down a couple of side streets, Zuko carrying the rucksack filled with produce. They were heading towards the butcher at the other end of town, apparently there was one closer, located on the main street, but Nigai was a close friend to this other butcher.

“Yasui will just rip you off. No compassion, that guy. Will ask you for 10 silver coins for barely a leg of a puma pig. No Zuko, we’re going to Jee. He’s honest. Sells his meat like it is, no lying or sugar coating” he had said.

The alleys they walk down are disgusting, filled with waste and litter. A pack of malnourished raccoon dogs are tearing apart what looks like a puma piglet. The squealing of the still live pig fills the street. Children are sitting on the sides, their empty eyes and narrow faces haunt Zuko. Even he had been better fed in prison than it looks like these people were. Zuko keeps his head down as two soldiers patrol past them, not offering them more than a glance. He thought it strange, that despite the fact that the reward for his return was so high, the soldiers didn't look like they were actively looking for any suspicious individuals. They looked... bored. He didn't know what to think about that. He thought of himself as a high profile prisoner and yet, no one seemed to care.

They arrived at Jee’s humble housing located next to a lake. The waters of the lake were dark and murky, it gave off an eerie feeling of death. Nigai knocked on the wood next to where a door should be, instead a curtain separates the inside and outside of the house. A short mustached man walks out

“Nigai! Come on, come with me, I’ll show you my latest catches,” Jee says, gesturing for them to follow him around the outside of the house. They verge off of the dirt road to the side of the house that is facing the lake. On a wooden patio a variety of fish were laid out, each one more grotesque than the next, with far too many uncomfortable rows of teeth and uneven glossy eyes.

“You got quite a collection here.” Nigai comments.

“Business has been slow. These are the catches from the last few days” Jee sighs.

Jee sees Zuko looking at the fish questioningly and answers his unasked question. “It’s all the toxins from the runoff of the factories, they pollute the rivers and lakes, so the fish...mutate to adapt.” Jee explains, “But no worries, they’re totally safe to eat” he chuckles nervously.

“Well alright,” Nigai sighs, “How much for that one over there?” Nigai points towards a large flat fish, with… are those horns?  
“70 Bronze coins”

“50,” Nigai counters.

“60,” said Jee

“Deal,” Niagi and Jee shake hands, Jee wraps up the fish and it is placed in the rucksack. With the buying of their fish, their shopping trip had concluded.

Zuko and Nigai make their way back to where they had left the dragon moose. Zuko took a last look at the town, it was awful what the fire nation had done to this town in order to further the war, the way they were slowly draining the life out of these people. Generals sacrificing their recruits lives like they mean nothing, while simultaneously slowly killing the civilians that provide for these soldiers. How could his father and sister not know about what was happening? How could they have sat through the same studies he has, been taught the same that he has, that as the ruler of a nation your top priority is the wellness of your people, and overlook this? Did truly no one in command care?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel a lot better about this chapter than I did the last one.  
> Hope you enjoyed :)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I went back and edited some of chapter 2 and 3, just to make Zuko's growth seem a little more natural. It's nothing big tho.  
> This is also a bit of a shorter chapter, my bad.

Staying with Nigai had been...nice, to say the least. It was a vast difference from how he was living before. He was eating three full meals a day, getting a lot of exercise and sunshine. He had even begun rising with the sun again! Physically his recovery was astonishing, though mentally he was still struggling, he'd have four or more nightmares per night, constantly waking in a cold sweat, feeling paranoid of his safety. He'd usually pace around the small cottage, look through the windows, until he eventually laid back down on the couch in exhaustion.

Zuko also didn't know how to feel about suddenly having an adult figure in his life again. A supportive, adult figure, who never yelled at him when he performed his katas wrong and who always gave him the last fire flake. He hadn't had that in a while, and if he's being honest, he's slowly warming up to it. It really is a shame that Zuko has decided not to stay in this town or with Nigai any longer.

While it had been nice staying with the old man, Zuko knew he had to leave soon. It just was not safe for him to stay here. He had seen the wanted posters hanging up on almost every building in town. And while he hadn’t made any contact with any guards he saw them out of the corner of his eyes. It wouldn’t be long before they find him.

He thinks maybe Nigai would understand, but the though that he might not, scares Zuko, he didn't want to ruin the one healthy relationship he's had since his Agni Kai. He was afraid that if he told the man that he was planning to leave, the old man would try to convince him to stay. And Zuko just couldn't handle that right now. Zuko was also not entirely sure that Nigai wasn’t just trying to use him to replace his dead sons, he had suspected this based on the way that he had talked about him and Zuko living together. So despite how nice Nigai had been to Zuko, he still decided to leave without telling him. 

An hour after Nigai went to bed, Zuko got up from the couch that had become his bed. He picked up the rucksack that he had carried when they went shopping a couple days earlier. He had hidden some extra clothes in there earlier. Yesterday, Nigai had gifted him his sons dual dao blades. Zuko insisted that he couldn't accept, these were memories of his sons after all. But Nigai must've snuck them into his rucksack at some point as Zuko found them there much later, at which point Zuko had already left the town. Perhaps Nigai knew that Zuko would not stay much longer.

He also took a couple of fruits and some bread with him. Not a lot, not enough to last him more than a couple of days, but he already felt guilty enough. He had seen the state of the town and the old man's finances. His only income is the bag of gold coins given to him upon his son's death, he has no more than that, Zuko can’t take too much from him.

Zuko leaves quietly, and makes his way down the path towards the town. He had considered taking the dragon moose, but Nigai is old, and it is his only form of transportation.

"This is why your weak Zuzu, you're always too afraid to take what is yours," Azula whispers.

While most of the town was deserted at this time, the brothel was loud and bright. Zuko didn't want to head down the side streets in order to avoid it. He knew he'd get lost or robbed. He needed to get to the other side of town in the quickest most efficient way possible, while darkness could still cover him, and that was through the main street. 

At the western side of town was a dirt path that connected to several other towns, the only path at the eastern side of town was to the prison and to isolated cottages like Nigai’s. The soldiers like to waste as little time as possible, so they had a road made directly to their workplace from the main street that held the brothel, or so Nigai had told him. 

Zuko speed walked past the brothel on the other side of the street, he kept his head down, gaze on his feet, hoping that there wouldn't be any soldiers conveniently looking outside and recognizing him. He held his breath the entire way past but was not stopped. Once he makes it past the brothel he picks his head back up, determined to make it out of his town.

At the exit of the town, he is stopped again.

Gesu had had a long few days. After the Prince had escaped, the prison and subsequently all its soldiers were on high alert. Gesu spent the previous two days, searching through the forest and another nearby town. He had only recently returned and received a night off. A night off that he had wanted to spend with the beautiful long haired, long legged, demoness called Sharu. He had only been out for a short smoke following his dinner, when he noticed the young man on his way out of town.

“Hey where do you think you're going?” he asked gruffly.

“I was just on my way out of town” The young man answered quietly.

“Out of town in the middle of the night?” Gesu becomes suspicious at this man's behavior.

“Well uhh,” the man hesitates. Gesu raises his hand to remove the man's hood and get a good look at him.

A loud crash resonates through the town, coming from the brothel, wild cheering and laughter follow. Gesu turns his head toward the brothel at the sound. When he turned back around, the hooded man was gone.

Gesu approaches the nearby woods, looking for the young man. He had just barely entered the threshold of the forest when a voice called out from the brothel, “Captain, where you at? The twins said they'd give you a discount for today!”.

Gesu’s face disfigured in a disturbingly wide grin, his face turning red with anticipation. He had been hoping to spend the night with Sharu, but the twins were just as good, “Coming!” he yells, briskly walking back towards the brothel. Gesu didn't have the time nor patience to deal with some teenage mischief on his night off, let someone else worry about that.

Zuko stays still while the guard leaves, and does not move until a good five minutes after he has left. He looks around the tree that he had been hiding behind, the guard had been dangerously close to finding him.

Zuko waits for a couple more minutes to make sure the guard is truly gone and not coming back, then treks through the forest, eventually verging onto the dirt path that led out of the town.

As he walks, Zuko thinks. 

Even though he really didn't want to do anything more than disappear off the face of the Earth and live the rest of his life in peace, the people of the town had gotten to him. Their haggard poor faces kept him awake at night amongst his many other nightmares. When he lived in the palace he never knew of these things, he had never seen them, and certainly never experienced them. The aggressions Ozai had taken against him, mentally and physically abusing him since he was born, manipulating his own sister against him, burning his face, and locking him away. No matter how angry he was, he could forget those, for his own health and safety, he could forget and disappear.

But knowing how the fire nation, how Ozai had treated his own people, not just his son. It enraged Zuko, these were his people and they don't deserve to starve, they don't deserve to be drafted at 15/16 years old, torn from their families in order to help them financially , and then be served as fodder on their first brush on the front lines, never to be thought of again.

Zuko still didn’t know what exactly to do about all this. He was on his own, what could he do against the whole of the fire nation? As far as he knew not much. He doesn't know hat to do or how to help, so he keeps walking. Hoping to find an answer eventually.

* * *

Nigai woke up to discover his young charge gone, he was disappointed, but not surprised. He sat down at his meager dining table, and began writing a letter. A letter that entailed all the details of the last few days. And unlike the other letters he typically writes, this one does not land in a box beneath his bed. This letter he sends to a man a couple days ride east of Mias. Upon receiving this letter and seeing who it is addressed to, the man forwards this letter to a merchant ship captain, who brings this letter with him to the Earth kingdom. The ship captain enters a bar in one of the many desert towns, and gives the letter to a patron playing Pai Sho in that same bar. The letter finds its way to the base of a secret peace organization known as the White Lotus. It would eventually be brought to the desk of the leader of that same organization, known as former-General, former-Crown Prince Iroh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is not the last we'll see of Nigai...  
> I am really trying to make these chapters as interesting as possible even though its all prologue. The main point of these prologue chapters is to show Zuko's growth from a prisoner who really hates himself and just wants to hide away. To someone who could lead an army, be confident and care for others. Obviously all of Zuko's issues aren't just going to disappear, but he'll receive more support. I also think I'm going to make this Zukka, not sure about that though yet so definitely tell me what you think!  
> Thanks for reading!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this one took a little longer to post, I got to go home and see my family again for the first time in six months so I've been spending a lot of time with them. Because of that these next couple chapter are probably gonna be slower to post. Please stay home as much as possible and please wear masks.  
> I also went back and edited chapters 2-4 again, sorry, but rereading those I realized that I never included the dual dao swords. I really should plan these chapters ahead a little more.  
> Anyways please enjoy this chapter.

Zuko reaches the town of Gaha roughly midday. He had been traveling on foot for nearly four days before he reached it. The dirt path he had been on verged off several times, but rather than follow any of the side paths he kept heading straight.

This town is bigger and less decrepit than Mias. The streets are busy and the people don't look hungry, they look… content.

While it is nowhere near the beauty of Caldera it is something that Zuko is far more familiar with.

A bigger town also means more soldiers, and while his wanted poster isn‘t hanging on the side of every still standing building in town, he is under no false impression that the soldiers don't know who he is.

Still, this place is far enough from the capital, and far enough from his mountain for Zuko to feel comfortable considering staying here for longer than in Mias. With a bigger town it is easier to overlook newcomers so hopefully if he keeps his head down, and the soldiers don't receive any more clues as to his escape, they’ll eventually forget about him. Or at least he won't be as much of a priority anymore. They are in a war after all, they have to have more to do than search for one escaped prince.

Zuko walks up and down the main streets. He doesn't know what to do, with Nigai it had been so easy but now he doesn't know where to start.

If he plans on staying here he’d need a place to sleep, now this could be on the street, but he worries about being caught by a soldier if he slept on the street. Also he’d really like to sleep inside somewhere. He’d need food and other necessities, of course he could steal it, but if he gets caught it’d give him trouble with the soldiers, so he’d need a job. Zuko’s never had a job before, other than Crown Prince, but he likes the idea of it. The idea of working, of deserving what he earns instead of just being given everything because of his birth.

As Zuko continues walking through one of the many bustling streets in town, he thinks of what to do. He sees a bar with a small sign over the doorway, it had one word on it, "Luz". He enters, bars are always a good place to connect with others, hopefully there is someone inside who can help him. 

The bar had an open floor plan with a counter where drinks and food were served on the side of the entrance. Opposite the entrance was a stage with a few instruments on it but no musicians. Next to the counter was a door that presumably led to a kitchen. 

There are only five other patrons in the bar as well as a bartender behind the counter. A group of three old men playing a game of pai sho together. Two other patrons were sitting at different tables, looking glum and nursing beers at noon.

Zuko‘s hopes plummet. 

He straightens back up, not wanting to be deterred yet, and moves to sit at the counter. The bartender turns around, she looks to be in her early to mid twenties. She had long dark hair that she kept in a high ponytail and a polite smile on her face as she cleans a glass.

“Hey, what can I get you?" She said, Zuko noticed one of her upper front teeth was missing.

“Well actually, I‘m looking for a place to stay,“ he says.

“Really? Well sorry to tell you but you're at the wrong place. Hardly anyone is here during the day, and those that are probably don't have anything for you".

“I see… so you don't know if someone has some extra room... If it helps I'd be willing to work for the room too?“ Zuko asks, hopeful that even if he can't get any information from the patrons, he might find some help from the bartender.

“Well, I don't really know how much free space people got in their homes. As for work… people always complain about needing another hand, but not for lack of willing employees, most of the time the employer can't afford hiring someone new.“ she says, turning back around to grab a different glass to dust off.

“Huh, I would never have guessed that. This town doesn’t look poor“.

“Yea, I guess Gaha is better standing than some other towns, but I mean who really has been thriving lately you know? Other than the rich folk at the capital,“ she abruptly turns around “Don't tell anyone I said that“.

“I won’t“, Zuko responds.

“I mean it“ she says, pointing at him with a long fingernail.

He holds his hand up to his chest, “Cross my heart.“

The bartender stares into his eyes for a bit before nodding. She spent especially long looking at his scar. Zuko turns his head down to cover his scar with his hood, it’s almost impossible to be in close proximity with someone without them being able to look underneath his hood, but he does his best. 

One of the patrons who had been quietly nursing his ale approaches the counter. “Ines? Fill me up again“ he says, holding out his mug.

Ines looks at the man, measuring his sobriety, “Alright, but you know how it is. Pay upfront.“ 

The man sighs and slams a couple of coins out of his pocket onto the counter. Ines takes the coins, counts them, nods, and takes his mug in order to fill it back up.

The man notices Zuko staring at him, he stares back.

“What’s your deal kid?“

“Looking for a job. Or a place to stay.“ he answers, keeping his head down.

“Yea? Me too, good luck“ he snorts condescendingly, reaching for the mug back from Ines.

“Not doing much looking other than down your glass“ she responds.

The man grunts and shuffles back to his table.

Zuko stands up, “I should probably go, check some other places,“ he says, “thanks for the company.“

Ines smiles, “No problem, nice to talk to someone other than these drunks.“

Zuko is halfway out the door, when Ines speaks up again. “Hey kid, what's your name?” she asks him

“Lee”

“Well Lee, if ya really want to see what this town can get up to, come by here later in the evening, ‘round six?“

Zuko nods.

He spends the rest of the day asking around if someone had some extra space, or an extra hand. He went from restaurants to markets to carpenters to farmers. All unsuccessful. Azula laughs at him in his mind.

It was evening when Zuko returned to Ines’ bar, about an hour later than she had suggested. Even before stepping inside he hears loud raucous music, people cheering and laughing. 

He enters and sees musicians up on stage, playing the piano, bass, trumpet, and other instruments. A woman stands center stage singing her heart out and dancing along. The music was fast tempoed and...fun. Something that he had never heard before.

The tables had all been pushed to the sides of the room. In the middle where the tables used to be was now a dancefloor, filled with people dancing and swinging each other around.

Ines was flitting around, between the few tables who were occupied and the counter, serving drinks and snacks.

Zuko sits at one of the only two free seats left at the counter.

"Hey kid! You came! Sorry can’t talk for long, busy night.“ she says rushing back out.

Sometime in the night Ines had prepared him a tea, which he was slowly sipping on. He often forgot about it while watching the performers and ended up reheating the tea several times with his firebending. By the end of the night the tea tasted absolutely atrocious from the constant reheating, yet Zuko felt obligated to drink it, the tea Ines had made him originally tasted good, it wasn't her fault he kept getting distracted. But he had never seen the dances and the energy that he saw that night in the bar. They never had dances like these in the palace.

He overlooked the dance floor and all of the patrons, everyone looked so happy, not at all like the people in Mias. This is what his citizens should look like, this is what the fire nation should look like. Zuko couldn't help smiling seeing his people so happy. 

The foreign action pulled at his scar, his muscles felt strained from performing an action he had not done for years.

He recognized a few soldiers here and there that he had spotted earlier in town, now out of uniform. In Mias, even soldiers who were off duty kept their uniform on. It separated them from the poor townspeople, it gave them authority. But these soldiers seemed so joyous in their simple red tunics, trousers, and robes. Nothing like the men that had kept him prisoner for the past three years.

Zuko tries not to get too distracted, now that more people were in the bar perhaps there was someone he hadn't accosted earlier that would offer him a place to stay. Zuko has never been the best with people, talking to strangers made him nervous. This was more than obvious when he talked to people earlier.He thought maybe there were a few who needed a new hire and had the room but just didn't want to hire him. He knows he doesn't look particularly trustworthy, and he's sure his personality is no bonus. He tried to initiate a conversation with the man sitting beside him at the counter, trying to find out if he had anything for him. But the man only grunted and told him not to sour the mood.

Zuko looks around, desperate for someone who would be willing to listen to him and offer any help. But everyone seemed busy enjoying the music and the company. Certainly no one around is willing to entertain a homeless, unemployed teenager. Being on your own was harder than he thought, Zuko thinks as he goes back to nursing his vile tea.

At a rare moment in the night. Ines has some free time to talk while she prepares drinks. “So, any luck?“ she asks.

“No, no one even seems to want to talk“

Ines laughs, “Well of course not, most people would probably tell you they don't have anything for you anyways, they just don't want to bring the mood down.“

Zuko looks at her, “You know, you seem pretty busy," he observes "Do you think you could maybe use some help?“ he asks, when he had come in earlier, he didn’t think the question was worth asking, but seeing how full the place is now...

She laughs, “Well, typically I would have my sister out here with me, but the baby‘s not too far out now, and we thought it'd be best if she rested more. It is technically her bar, so you’d have to ask her.“

“Well where can I find her?“ he asks, filled with hope.

Ines looks at him for a moment, studying the eager boy in front of her, “Tell you what, why don’t you just help me for free for the rest of the night, as a sort of trial. And if I like what I see I‘ll send you her way and put in a good word. You can help out until the baby comes,“ she says.

Zuko thinks about it for a moment, „Well, I like those odds a lot better than anything else I've been given.“ he sighs as he stands up to walk behind the counter. Ines reaches out, holding a spare apron.

They quickly build a system, she creates the drinks, since he doesn’t know how, and he delivers them.

He had never done this type of servant work before, it is...beneath a prince, but Zuko doesn't have any other options. Perhaps this is Agnis way of teaching him humility.

There’s a few mixups of drinks, some wrong orders taken, and Zuko is worried about his chances. At least he didn't trip up on any floorboards and spill all of the drinks and break all the glasses like Azula told him he would. 

Whenever he looks at Ines to see what she thinks of his mistakes, she just smiles at him. He can’t tell whether she is just that good at faking her emotions or if she really doesn't care.

He knows his father would have beaten him senseless for each tiny mistake, would’ve probably humiliated him by yelling at him in the middle of the bar. But his father is not here, and Ines seems much nicer than him anyways.

* * *

They closed the bar at around two, all patrons had left as well as the cooks, leaving behind a dirty kitchen, the musicians were still lingering around, chatting as they were packing up their instruments. Ines was wiping down the bar counter and cleaning the dishes while Zuko wiped down all the tables, placed all the chairs on top, and began sweeping.

After he finishes, Zuko joins Ines in the kitchen and begins drying the dishes. They work in silence for a bit before Zuko speaks up, “So what do you think?” he asks.

She hums in response, confused as to what he’s asking.

“On how I did tonight? You think I got a chance with the boss?”

Ines ponders for a bit. Zuko is nervous about how long it’s taking her to respond. He didn’t know where else he could go if this didn't work out.

“You know you really didn’t do too bad considering it was your first night. I know I did much worse on my first shift. To be fair, I was also a lot younger than you when I started. But my sister is a tough lady. Even with my approval I can’t guarantee much.” she says.

“But I do have your approval?” he asks hopefully.

She smiles at him, “Yes you do”. Zuko smiles back. He’s been doing a lot of that tonight.

“You should smile more, you look very handsome when you do.”

Zuko chuckles, scratching himself behind the ear in embarrassment. Zuko then quickly realizes that his hood had come off at some point. He began to panic, Ines had already seen him up close, but what if his hood had come off while he was serving customers, had anyone else seen? Had any of the off duty soldiers seen? He quickly pulls the hood back on and turns away.

“Hey, no need to get embarrassed now,” Ines tries to placate.

“When did the hood come off?” he stammers.

“Hmm? Just now, when you walked in.” she responds.

Zuko lets out a breath. Thank Agni.

“Why? Is there something you don’t want others to see?” she pauses, “Is it the scar? It's not even that bad, a lot of people here got burn scars, we got a lot of veterans in this town. Besides, I think it only adds to your character!” she says, trying to cheer him up.

Zuko reaches a hand up to touch the edge of his scar. “I don't want to talk about it.” he says.

Ines looks at him, then shrugs and turns back to wash the dishes.

After Zuko and Ines lock up the bar, Ines takes him behind the bar to an alley with an outside staircase that leads to the sisters’ apartment.

“Luci?” she whispers, stepping into the dark living room. Ines quietly shuffles over to a door to the right of the living room, she opens it to peek inside and closes it shortly after.

The front door led right into the living room which included several armchairs as well as a low coffee table, on the left was an open doorway to a kitchen, towards the far wall were two closed doors, and on the left was the one door that Ines was at.

Ines sighs, “Well I guess you’re going to have to talk to her tomorrow, sorry she is usually up at this time, but I guess she does get tired more easily now with the baby. You got anywhere you can stay for the night?”. Zuko shakes his head in response. “Well alright,” Ines sighs, she pushes the chairs and table towards the wall and proceeds to take a couple of pillows and blankets, and lays them out on the floor in the entrance room. “This is the best I can do, sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Zuko placates.

Ines points towards one of the doors across the room. “That one’s the bathroom, the one next to that is my bedroom, enter and I’ll kill you.” she says. Zuko nods.

Ines goes to get ready for bed herself as Zuko lies down and wishes her goodnight.

Zuko doesn’t stay awake for much longer, falling asleep quickly after the strenuous day he’s had. His dreams, for the first time in a while, are not filled with fear, but with trumpets and laughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I just put a jazz bar in imperialist japan? Yes, I really like jazz bars. I guess it could also be a saloon but still wrong place and time.  
> I also put some Hispanic influence in, mainly bc with the sun warriors there is already mesoamerican influence in ATLA, also Ursa and Caldera never sounded like Japanese names to me more Hispanic, im not sure tho.  
> Anyways tell me what you think about this chapter!


	6. Chapter 6

Lee had been with them for a little more than a week now. Ines admits she should've thought better about allowing a strange boy to sleep in the same place as two young women.

Lucilia had woken up earlier than her sister, as per usual, and immediately screamed upon seeing a strange young man sleeping in her living room. She had grabbed the nearest object (a decorative figurine) and tried to hit him with it. Luckily her scream had woken both Lee and Ines, and they were able to stop her from doing anything. Ines had had a lot of explaining to do that morning.

Lucilia was suspicious at first, but the awkwardness with which he had introduced himself to her sister and asked for a job despite how violent she had been, endeared him to her. It also helped that Lee has since been a great help at the bar especially considering that his payment is just room and board on their crappy blanket pile in the living room.

Often during the day, when the bar was less busy, they would send Lee for groceries, sometimes accompanying Lucilia if she was feeling well enough and carrying her bags. It had helped warm Lee up to Lucilia.

Yet, over the last few days since Lee began living and working with them, Ines had noticed some things about him, first off, he always kept his hood on. As far as she knew, she and Lucilia were the only ones who had seen him without it. Well, except for that short instance with the cook. She doesn’t understand the big deal about it, she knows he’s trying to hide the scar but she wasn’t lying when she said that many people had them, maybe not on the face but still. No one would look at him wrong, everyone would just recognize him as another victim of the war. He could at least stand to trust his coworkers, Goro might not be a world class chef, but he was nice. And he had promised to keep quiet about the scar so maybe Lee could stop giving him death glares whenever he sees him.

What was nice about Lee letting his hood down around them was that Ines had gotten into the habit of braiding his hair whenever her hands felt empty with nothing to do. She’d give him intricate braided hairstyles and tease him about how much they suited him. It is how she spent many of their early closing nights.

Ines had noticed from the beginning that Lee was a quiet and reserved boy, yet the more time she spent with him the more it didn't seem like that was truly his nature, it seemed more like he was purposefully keeping himself quiet. Ines had caught him several times looking like he had wanted to weigh in on a discussion customers were having, or when Ines and her sister would argue. He always opened his mouth as if ready to say something, yet nothing would ever come out. Sometimes he would nod or shake his head along to these discussions.

Ines has some suspicions about those observations. She had assumed him to be of some noble blood just based off of the poise with which he sits and eats with them. Yet his very polite formal speech was often mixed with curse words that even a sailor wouldn’t know, and that he only says in front of her as Luci would wash his mouth out with soap if she heard. Perhaps he had been a servant to nobles? Learning the poise and grace through observation of his masters, learning the curses from his coworkers perhaps, and of course servants had to stay quiet a lot. Yet if he had been a servant, why was he so unused to working, not just the specific table waiting at the bar, but he seems surprised any time Ines or her sister ask him to do anything. Ines wonders...

He was often tense when soldiers entered the bar, or when they passed patrols on the street. Now, most people are cautious around soldiers, less so during music nights, but still, they had a reputation of not being nice to citizens when in uniform. His distrust of them was… actually pretty normal.

In fact, it had already happened that her and Lee had come across a soldier beating a middle aged man on the street with a baton. There was a small crowd of shocked passerbys, but most others just walked past, already used to this sight. Ines had been filled with rage at the soldiers' abuse of power, but out of self preservation she did nothing.

Lee, in turn, had seemed afraid, and understandably so, it was a difficult scene to watch.

Ines’ mind was so solely focused on the soldiers, trying to remember their faces so she could make sure to spit in their drinks next time she served them, that she noticed a little late how distressed Lee really was. Eventually she looked over to him and saw how quickly Lee’s breaths were coming. His eyes were dilated and he was pulling on his hair.

She quickly took Lee out of the area so he no longer had to see it. 

Ines had taken him a couple streets down and into a dark alley. He still hadn’t come back to himself.

“Lee? Hey Lee are you okay?” she asked, reaching out to him.

He flinched away from her violently. Lee stared up at her, wide eyed with fear, and slowly slid down the wall he was standing against.

Ines was shocked for a moment, she saw in his eyes the same thousand yard stare that soldiers often had when they sat in her bar drinking the day away. 

She didn’t know what to do, she never had to deal with this before. She usually just left the soldiers to their drinking and their families would eventually collect them. But Ines is probably as close to family as Lee has right now. So she needed to be the one to collect Lee, to ground him.

Ines slowly sits down beside him. “Lee?”. Lee doesn’t respond, he is still breathing much too quickly and shallow. She slowly reaches over and takes his hand, he still flinches but doesn’t pull away.

“Breathe Lee” she says squeezing his hand, “In. Out. Breathe. That’s good. In. Out. In. Out. See you got this.” she had said, smiling shakily.

It took a little bit longer, but with Ines coaching him through his breathing, Lee had eventually calmed down. Once he had stopped hyperventilating his head drooped onto her shoulder and Ines took the risk of lowering his hood in this dark alley in order to run her fingers through his hair. They stayed in that alley for a good hour, not talking, just hugging, breathing together.

Ines thinks back to that day, it had taught her a lot more about Lee. Maybe instead of a servant, he had been a soldier, though a little young to already be decommissioned… maybe he was a refugee from one of the colonies? The things he must've seen on the front lines to traumatize him so.

He was a good kid, she could tell, she’s good with people, and her sister trusts him, which doesn’t happen often, Ines is going to do everything in her power to keep him safe with her.

There are still many things he isn’t telling them, about the scar and the hood, and his origin.

But honestly who didn’t have something to hide in this day and age. Those who were honest about their feelings were often taken away never to be seen again. Ines was sure that if she was just patient with the kid, he’d eventually open up to her.

* * *

The bar had had a quieter night tonight and Ines and Zuko managed to clear the place and lock the doors by 11.

Overall it had been much a regular night other than at one point, when a soldier had been harassing a young woman who was uninterested. He pulled her hand to him and said that if she knew what’s best she’d spend the night with him. The woman had shrieked and pulled her hand back. The soldier got mad and slapped her in the face. For a moment time had stood still at that action for Lee. The amount of times he had been slapped like that… not just by his guards but his father and his tutors. It sent Lee into a whirlwind of flashbacks while Ines and a couple of other patrons managed to appease the soldier into leaving the girl alone.

Zuko had gotten back to himself just as the doors closed behind the soldier. The entire time Zuko had done nothing but stand there. When he first arrived he thought about how much better this town was than Mias. He thought Mias was just an outlier, one where maybe the nation and the war really weren’t that much at fault for their poverty, part of it must have been the towns fault. Gaha, at first glance, represented the Fire Nation much better. But despite the fact that the town is more well off economically, the soldiers still had full command of the town and its citizens and often abused their position. Assaulting random civilians for the most trivial of things. Like the man who was beat up for accidentally bumping into a soldier. Zuko still shudders remembering that.

As the two sisters prepare for bed, he speaks up about some of the things he’s been thinking, “I didn’t know it was this bad...the way the soldiers treat people here…” he says.

Lucilia looked at him, “Careful who you say that to, boy,” she looked down her nose at him in warning. Zuko is scared for a second, afraid he’d misjudged these sisters.

Ines sighs, “Relax Lee,” she turns around from folding her laundry, “We won’t sell you out Agni knows whatever you're thinking now, we’ve been thinking for years”.

Zuko relaxes, “Why does no one do anything about it? This is not how the army should treat its citizens” he asks.

“Well I doubt anyone cares, as long as the war keeps going and the Fire Nation keeps reigning supreme. Bet the Fire Lord has never given us common people a second thought”.

“Careful Ines, no matter what you say that man is our Fire Lord, he is the heart of this nation and you shouldn’t speak ill of him. Besides back when Fire Lady Ursa was alive, she often took care of people like us. I'm sure the Fire Lord is just overworked now since she is not around to take care of the smaller details.”

“Wait, she died?” Zuko asked, distress clear in his voice as his eyes flitted between the two sisters “I just thought she disappeared”.

“Psh, you don't just disappear, especially not if you’re the freaking Fire Lady. I'm telling y'all she's dead, don't know how exactly, but i'm sure it was shady”, Ines says, her back turned to him, unaware of his anxiety.

Zuko couldn't handle that thought, the thought that his mother was dead. No matter what the sisters said, he couldn’t believe that, he’d break if he did. So many memories of his mother had helped him through the tough times, to think that all along she might’ve been dead...

“Ines! Enough with your conspiracies!” Lucilia says.

“But it’s true, she did just vanish out of nowhere! So did the prince! I’m sorry but two royals disappearing in the span of three years isn't suspicious to you?”

“Wait what? What about the prince?” Zuko asks.

“Oh you don't know? Apparently a couple of years ago, Prince Zuko was banished from the Fire Nation because he disrespected Agni or something like that. But honestly, ask yourself, what is it that a prince could do, to be banished, but which does not spread throughout the nation. Seriously! No one knows what he was banished for, isn't that just a little iffy? Oh, and also, if he was truly banished, how come no one has heard from him since. Seriously, no one in the colonies has said anything, no soldiers or helmsmen were asked to accompany him, no one seems to know where he is. Now I’d think that means that he isn’t around anymore, at all...If you get what I’m saying” Ines rambles, “Now I don't want to get too conspiratorial,” she whispers the next part, “But I'd be shocked if the Fire Lord Ozai didn't have anything to do with it”.

“Ines!” Lucilia whisper shouts, looking through the curtains on the window.

“What?” she chuckles nervously, “There's no way he doesn't know exactly what goes on”.

“Still there’s no need to say it out loud,” Lucilia whispers back.

While the two sisters kept teasing each other, Zuko went back to silently preparing his makeshift bed.

The talking quickly ended and each went to bed, Zuko laid awake and thought. Everyone thought he was gone, banished or dead, and people were suspicious. He didn’t know what to think about that. Was this a good thing or a bad thing, it does explain why, even though the soldiers were probably aware of the fact that he was an escaped prisoner, no one else on the street ever recognized him. In fact the only person who had was Nigai. He begins to suspect whether it was really his name that had tipped Nigai off as to who he was or whether there was something else going on...

He slept restlessly that night. Dreams filled as always with nightmares of violence and torture at the hands of his captors and his family. 

After everyone had had their fun torturing him and laughing at him he began sinking into a deep dark pit, drowning, trying to reach out to his father or sister who were standing nearby laughing. Out of the corner of his eyes he sees his uncle and his mother watching. Their eyes hollow, and they didn’t move a muscle to help him. He was engulfed and stuck underwater, separated from the rest of the world by a layer of black ice. As the rest of the world, his family, his friends, Nigai and Ines and Lucilia, all moved on. All forgot about him and went on to live better lives with him gone. After hours of banging on the ice, he loses his strength and stops fighting. Slowly sinking deeper into the pit, wasting away with no one left to care about him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The fire nation is a Fascist Police State  
> I'm back!  
> The next chapter has a lot more action, and its going to be posted in a couple of days so be ready for that!


	7. Chapter 7

It had been almost three weeks since Zuko first escaped. 

Working at the bar has been nice. He had had more fun in the past few days than in the past few years. Even before the Agni Kai, ever since his mother…left.

He would often get pulled onto the dance floor by patrons and dance all night instead of working. He’d make sure to keep his hood up but still spent the night spinning and twirling some of the patrons around the dancefloor. At first he rejected anyone trying to interact with him, mainly because he didn't know, and partially because he was still wary of physical contact. Ines must've figured out his reasoning though as she then spent a couple of hours after work teaching him most of the basic dances. After that, Zuko just felt bad if he didn't participate, it's not like he had an excuse anymore. Despite the practice he had had with Ines, dancing in a space with many other people with loud music playing in the background, was vastly different.

He had messed up quite a lot during the first few days, and always apologized profusely whenever he stepped on anybodies toes, though his partners usually waved him off, knowing that he was new to this. Despite his reluctance when Ines had first taught him, he was now somewhat grateful to her. It was not something he had ever been taught in the palace, activities like these that could be classified as "fun" were not tolerated by his father, especially as he got older and had to focus more on his training and education. After the first few days, he had gotten used to the close physical contact and started to enjoy dancing.

He was also pulled on stage a couple of times by the musicians who had taken a liking to him. He couldn’t play any instruments other than the tambourine, not for lack of teaching, but the others still seemed to enjoy having him there. He never knew any of the lyrics but caught onto beat and rhythm quite quickly.

At first Zuko was worried that Lucilia would be mad at him for not working, but apparently she felt he needed to have fun more than he did. He knew Ines was in his corner, since she was the one who encouraged all of this and convinced him to participate. But that didn't help the panic that he felt when Lucilia first walked into the bar while Zuko was admittedly not working, in favor for dancing. He had quickly abandoned his dance partner and gone back to serving, apologizing for his actions, though she had just brushed him off. He didn't realize that that was her approving of him, until Ines had told him that he didn't have to worry.

While he's definitely had a lot of fun lately, at the same time he has also had more nightmares and panic attacks than ever. He found it harder and harder to stay quiet during his nightmares. Waking up with a hand shaking his shoulder and turning to the two sisters who were hovering worriedly above him, looking at his tear stricken face. It was a common occurrence for the three to, after a particularly bad nightmare, sit on the floor in silence and drink tea, huddled together.

He felt guilty about it, especially for Lucilia, she really needed her sleep now with the baby almost here. Ines told him not to worry about it, she said that many veterans she had met had also been worse off once they left the battlefield. She said it is a sign of his mind healing. Allowing himself to feel his pain in a way he didn’t have the mental space to before. He doesn’t know whether he should believe her on that or not. If he really was healing wouldn’t his nightmares get better? Wouldn’t he have an easier time talking to and befriending people? Wouldn’t he maybe be less suspicious and scared all the time?

He knows they worry about him, no normal teenager has as many issues as he does, especially since he’s told them that he was never a soldier or in any sort of battle.

Not only that but they had both seen his other scars, and he knows that only escalated their thoughts. He never meant to show them, he knows how people would react to them, but it had happened completely by accident, during their weekly laundry time.

Ines and Zuko had been joking and fooling around, splashing each other with the soapy water, while Lucilia did most of the work. Once Lucilia had washed most of the other clothes she turned to Zuko, “C’mon take that shirt off too, it reeks, might as well wash it with the rest,” she had said.

Zuko sniffs his shirt, “I think it smells fine”.

Ines laughs at him and starts trying to grab his shirt and pull it off. Zuko laughs along and jokingly resists.

Eventually Ines pulls it off completely, giving Lucilia and her a clear view of all the scars that littered his body, they gasped, standing in shock of what they were seeing.

His body was entirely covered with small raised white lines from the knife cuts that Gesu would give him, only a few had festered and hadn’t healed right, leaving larger red angry gashes and bumps in their place. His wrists were covered by a large scar that went around the whole of his wrist from being chained and tied up. His back was covered in lash scars, though they could not see that from where they were standing. He also had a few larger burns on his biceps and stomach from the firebending guards who had told him that they were trying to match the one already on his face.

Zuko quickly took his shirt back, out of Ines’ hands, all signs of laughter off his face. He pulled it back on and began drying the laundry with his firebending, as he had done often before, ignoring their gazes. Eventually the sisters had also quietly gone back to their work.

Zuko thought back on that day as he was walking down the street in the late evening. While Ines was handling the bar on a quiet night, he had been sent to buy some meat at the butcher that was open late. He really liked the sisters and enjoyed their company, he even began seeing them as older sister figures. Yet ever since that day they had become far more protective over him. It had taken a lot of arguing to allow him to just go grocery shopping on his own tonight. It was the first time since that day a week ago that he had been outside on his own. It wasn't like they were strictly forbidding him from going out alone, but they'd always find some excuse to accompany him even when it was blatantly obvious that it was a lie. And it began to feel constricting, despite their good intentions.

Zuko breathes in the chilly night air, and exhales slowly. It was a quiet night, not many other people were out on the street, except for the occasional patrolling soldier. He kept his head down as he walked down the street, staring at his feet rather than in front of him in an effort to go unnoticed.

This action backfired on him as he noticed the man in front of him too late, and didn't avoid him in time. He only quickly saw the shoes in front of him and stopped abruptly, almost bumping into him. He looks up a bit to see a soldier staring at him. Fuck. He had managed to evade them for the entire past two weeks, but his luck must’ve run out.

Never thought I had much of it to begin with, he thinks.

“Good evening officer,” Zuko says.

“Good evening sir…?” 

“Lee, my name is Lee, officer,”

“Well then Lee, What is your business at this time?”

This happened often, Ines told him. The patrol officers often stopped people to ask some routine questions, just to make sure no one was up to anything nefarious. She had said that it was annoying most of the time, and could get dangerous sometimes, especially if it was a young woman who was stopped on her own. She had said that if he were ever stopped to just be extremely polite and honest, that was the quickest way to get out of the situation.

“Well, I was just on my way home from the late butcher”, Zuko huffs nervously, “ I didn’t have time to go during the day”, he says, keeping his eyes low, trying to seem as docile and innocent as possible.

The longer the soldier took to answer, the more nervous Zuko became, his memories of his past interactions coming back to haunt him. Had the soldier somehow looked through him? But Zuko was telling the truth, he really was just coming home from the butcher. His body began reacting to the pressure against his will, his hands started fidgeting and his legs were shuffling.

The soldier seemed to notice how strange Zuko was acting, and as soon as Zuko noticed how guiltily he was behaving he forcibly stopped his hands and feet. Though the soldier had caught on by now, “Sir, I’m going to need you to take your hood off” he said.

Zuko hesitates. Even if he still hadn’t seen his wanted poster hung up anywhere in this town, it would be too much to hope that the soldiers themselves didn't recognize him.

“Sir, either you take the hood off, or I will have to take it off for you.”

Zuko doesn’t know what to do. Should he risk revealing himself and hope the soldier doesn’t recognize him? Or should he run and hope the soldier doesn’t follow him and put out a warning out for him? Which was the safer option? Which option could get him home as quickly as possible?

"Sir"

Was compliance the best action? While running was automatically a guilty action, he could get away safely as long as the soldier didn't know him... yet if he did know him, his chances of escape would narrow drastically...

"Sir!"

Zuko looks up at the soldier, stray pieces of his hair that escaped his braid framing his face. He slowly lifts his head and takes off his hood. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact, this chapter and the next chapter were supposed to be one, but I wanted to try doing a cliffhanger for the first time, so thats why I split up the chapter. Sorry that this one is a bit shorter bc of that, but the next chapter is gonna be up soon.


	8. Chapter 8

Zuko slowly takes off his hood and looks at the soldier. 

Exactly what Zuko had dreaded was happening. The soldier’s eyes widened clearly in recognition as he scanned Zuko's face. His lips begin forming words, but Zuko doesn't listen. He drops the meat that he had bought and starts running. The soldier follows. 

Zuko makes a sharp left turn and runs down an alley, hoping to lose him in the tight side streets. At the end of the alley he makes another sharp turn and throws any nearby trash cans, to the ground. The soldier isn’t stopped or slowed by this at all, instead jumping over them and continuing to run after Zuko at full speed. Another series of turns follows, when eventually Zuko ends up at a larger street again, he immediately crosses it to head into a different alley and hides in the shadow of a building as he watches the soldier run out of the street he had just come from.

He watches as the soldier looks around, studying some of the people that were passing him by on the street, yet he sees no one that resembled the escaped prisoner. He heads to the other side of the street and heads down an alley to Zuko’s right. Zuko releases a breath and slowly slinks back onto the main street, walking briskly but not running. 

He had just turned back onto the road that the bar is on when he hears shouting behind him. 

He immediately recognizes the voice and starts running again. He runs past the bar and climbs over a fence into a closed off street. At the end of the street is a T-intersection, he heads right but stops abruptly when he notices that the street is a dead end, his exit covered by a building. 

He turned around to find the soldier already behind him.

“Stop!” he shouts, “You are under arrest, turn around and put your hands on the wall!”

Zuko studies the man, he was not even out of breath from the chase. Clearly a strong and fit guy, there was no guarantee that Zuko could beat him. Zuko thinks through his options and doesn’t find much hope for himself. He had been keeping up his training during his time in Gaha, mainly doing simple exercises in the living room of the apartment, or doing some katas in the back of the bar. But that couldn't guarantee anything.

Agni, he wished he had his dao with him right now.

The soldier moves abruptly forward as Zuko doesn't respond to his demands.

And Zuko reacts by throwing a fireball at him. The soldier deflects it, and firebends back at him. Zuko blocks that, and throws another three fireballs, hiding the last one behind another. While the soldier dealt with the first two, the last one came unexpected. He instinctively walks backward, holding his arms up to protect himself. He trips over the uneven pavement, luckily avoiding the last fireball, and quickly flips back onto his feet, not losing more than a second before regaining his momentum.

Zuko grunts, frustrated, and charges at him with a flaming fist. The first punch Zuko throws is easily blocked and the soldier attempts to retaliate with his own flaming fist, Zuko blocks that with his own forearm. For a second both stand pushing against each other, trying to overpower the other. They both pull back at the same time, taking a few steps back, panting, looking each other over. 

Zuko judges that they are relatively equal in both firebending and physical power. The soldier seems to have arrived at the same conclusion. Zuko moves to charge again, when he is distracted by the call of another soldier running up to them. In the split second that Zuko loses focus, the soldier steps forward and swiftly punches Zuko in the face. Zuko is thrown back by the impact and the soldier is immediately upon him. With the help of the other soldier who had arrived, they manage to turn Zuko’s struggling body around.

The soldier grabs his wrists harshly behind his back, and wraps them in chains.

“The’ve been looking for you for weeks,” he spits, “You’re going right back where you came from you sick fuck” he says as he lifts Zuko up. Zuko glares at him over his shoulder with a bloody lip. The soldier glares back.

* * *

Together they take him to an army base outside of town.

He gets thrown into a temporary cell. Which contains a wooden bed frame and a straw mattress, at least this was more than he had before. Though rather than a metal door, he had metal bars separating him from the outside. His hands were still bound behind his back. 

“Fuck you,” he spits out, “You can’t keep me chained up here! Didn’t work last time and it won’t work now!”, he shouts, disguising his fear with anger. He hopes the soldier doesn't notice the tremble in his voice, or the shake of his hands. Zuko couldn't go back, he'd do everything he can to never land back in that cell.

“You’ve got no right being insulted, after what you did to this nation” the soldier retorts, “Trying to kill the Fire Lord, and steal his throne. You should be ashamed to call yourself fire nation. Ashamed to call yourself a son, a prince.” 

Zuko looks affronted, “I never did that”.

“Yea right,” the soldier looked at him disgusted, “no point denying it kid, there were witnesses”.

“I never did anything like that,” Zuko argues. The soldier huffs in response, Zuko takes a deep breath before saying the next part, “I spoke out against my father,” The soldier glares at him when he says that, “He challenged me to an Agni Kai and next thing I remember I wake up in a cell. I have never murdered anyone nor have I ever tried to murder anyone.” Zuko argues.

The soldier looks at him for a second, then huffs again and turns to leave.

“Wait!”, Zuko shouts, this man only thought he was doing what was best, he thought that Zuko was a bad guy, maybe Zuko could convince him that that’s not the truth. That this isn’t as black and white as he thinks. Maybe if he can convince this soldier to see things his way he could count on him to help him. “You’ve got to have seen what some of these towns look like right? How some of our people are living. Tell me honestly if the Fire Lord was as just and honorable as you say, why are there children starving on the street!”.

The soldier clenches his fist, and turns back around abruptly, “That's just a side effect of the war! It’s a necessary sacrifice! Once we have gained control over the earth kingdom and the water tribes no one in the world will ever have to suffer again! We bring greatness to the world!” he shouts.

“That’s a lie and you know it! There's plenty of people already suffering! People that will die before they ever see the end of this war! What are we spreading other than fear and terror?!”

“You don't know anything!"

"I know a lot more than you. I know this war is wrong, and I know that the Fire Lord is wrong!"

"So that's all your aiming for? You just want to kick Fire Lord Ozai off his throne! You don't care about anyone, you just want power!"

"I don't! I just know that he's wrong, I don't care who replaces him as long as my people, our people, can stop suffering!"

"Well lets say that you are right, what would you do? Huh?! Lets say that even if you do get out of here somehow, what can you do to help anybody?!”

“I don't know but I would do something! I would stop the war! Overthrow my father! I don't care what it takes to help people, I don't care what it takes to prove to you and to others that I only have the best of intentions. Father doesn't care how many suffer, how many die for his sick goal. We're committing genocide not just of the other nations but of ourselves too! Things need to be stopped, to change, no matter how! I would do more than is being done now.”

They both stand glaring at each other, panting again, a strange parallel to earlier.

"And I think you would too if you could," Zuko continues, "Listen, all that might not be necessary. If I could just speak to my father personally, I'm sure I can help him see his errors, and reason with him", Zuko pleads, he doesn't truly believe his father will be convinced by him. He might just kill Zuko if he ever saw him again. But this soldier still trusts in the Fire Lord, he still trusts in the system despite how much is going wrong.

'Maybe if I appeal to him, tell him I'd do things in a way that he'd like, he'd be more willing to help me' Zuko thinks.

“What's your name?” Zuko asks, attempting to try to deal with this in a more rational, calm matter.

The soldier hesitates for a second before answering, “Kai,” he says.

He studies the soldier now that he was up close to him and not busy fighting him. He had a long nose and a square jaw, curly red hair was peeking out from beneath his helmet, and despite the fact that he looked rather young, he already had lines around his eyes and mouth. Though Zuko shouldn’t judge that, he’s sure he himself looks quite a bit older due to the scars and the stress. 

“Kai, open your eyes. Children are dying on the front lines for this nation.” he says.

Kai gulps, “Yes I know,” he admits, turning his gaze to the floor. Zuko sees everything he needs to see in that statement and in Kai’s actions alone.

“I’m sorry about whomever you’ve lost,” Zuko says quietly.

Kai nods, before turning away and leaving.

Zuko spends the next couple hours in his cell staring at the ceiling. Watching the occasional soldier walk by. Sometimes, he would have to violently shake his arms to release the tension that the chains brought, his wrists were bleeding from the chains scratching against his scars, and the blood was dripping down his back.

At one point he had walked closer to the bars, trying to figure out how much he’d have to melt in order to escape, yet a soldier had walked by right at that time, and swung a baton at the bars to get him to back up. He grunted and returned to the bed. Just from his short trip he figured out that he needed to melt most of two maybe three bars. This would be difficult to do without getting caught. He sighs, and goes back to staring at the ceiling, brainstorming for options.

A couple hours after that incident, a different soldier came up and brought him his dinner. He opened a separate attachment in the cell door, close to the floor, where he laid the tray in, closing the compartment before he began speaking, “Hey,” the soldier whispers, “Are you Zuko? The lost prince?” he asks.

“Shouldn’t you know?” Zuko retorts.

The soldier takes a second to observe the moody teenager before speaking, Zuko does the same in turn. The man was of a shorter and thinner stature than either Zuko or Kai, but he was clearly older than either of them. He had dark hair that looked like it needed a trim as his bangs were constantly caught in his eyes. Everything about his posture and body language spoke meek. But Zuko wasn’t fooled so easily. Just because Kai seemed like a decent guy deep down, it doesn’t erase the fact that he had been imprisoned for years by people who knew the truth and gave less than a shit about him.

“They don't always tell us everything, and even when they do it is rarely the truth.” the soldier finally responds, “I’m assuming by your answer that you are. Listen the others,” he hesitates, “most everyone thinks you’re a traitor to the nation. But some of us know what actually happened in the war room and during your Agni Kai”.

As soon as the words Agni Kai had left the man’s mouth, Zuko was transported back. Remembering the hot hand on his face, a loving touch at first until it kept getting warmer and warmer, until it was near unbearable. Burning his flesh and muscle and bone, melding them together until his left side was completely indistinguishable from his right. He distantly remembers what the cook had once taught him about cooking frogs, that the heat needed to be turned up slowly, otherwise the frog would jump out of the pot right away. By placing the frog into lukewarm water, it won’t even notice when it gets boiled alive. 

Zuko shakes his head and tunes back into what the man was saying, he had clearly missed some of it as Zuko could not understand what prompted the man to say what he said next.

“We’ll get you out tonight. It’d be real nice if you could join us,” he said before he left. Zuko was left confused, berating himself for not paying attention.

He continues contemplating the man’s words until he returns, roughly three hours later. The soldier returns with keys in his hand and a bag slung over his shoulder. He opens the cell door and releases Zuko from his chains. Zuko might not know exactly who this guy was or what his intentions were, but he clearly believes Zuko’s story, and is willing to help him escape, which is good enough for him. For now. He’d demand more answers later.

“My name is Ike by the way.” he says as he opens the chains.

Zuko turns to face him, rubbing his wrists, “Ike, nice to meet you,” Zuko says shaking his hand.

“It’s an honor, your highness,”.

“Please, just call me Zuko,” he says, having missed being able to say that.

They rush out of the cell and make their way down a couple of corridors. “We have a secret exit in most bases of this size, it’ll lead us a ways away deep into the forest, we’ll have to leave the area immediately upon escaping so as to not get caught.” he says.

“I have to say goodbye to the family I was staying with before I follow you anywhere.” Zuko says, saddened at having to leave Ines and Lucilia so soon. But he couldn’t put their lives in danger for his own selfishness.

“Understood” Ike says.

They reach a door in the hallway and Ike opens it. It looks to be some sort of storage closet. Ike heads to the back and moves a storage shelf that was standing at the far wall to the right, revealing behind it a dirt tunnel. “Come on, let’s go”, he says.

Zuko and Ike rush into the tunnel when they hear Kai yell, “He’s escaped!”.

They aren’t far down the dirt tunnel when they begin hearing footsteps behind them. “Stop!” Kai yells. He catches up to them quickly, forcing Ike and Zuko to stop him in order to be able to make it out. Ike looks visibly scared at his approach so Zuko steps in. 

Kai stops a couple feet in front of Zuko and immediately shoots fire at him, Zuko deflects the fire and throws his own. “Kai! Remember what we talked about!”. Zuko dodges another fireball, “The way things are aren’t right!” he yells.

They fight each other with fire. Zuko keeps shooting and deflecting fireballs as he slowly moves closer. Fighting more rationally now than before. While Kai seemed to do the opposite. “The only thing that matters right now is your arrest”, Kai responds.

As Zuko deflects another fireball, he moves close enough to grab Kai’s wrist and push him face first towards the dirt wall.

“Kai you need to trust me!”

Kai grunts, “I don’t even know you!”

Zuko attempts to take his other hand and hold them behind his back but Kai breaks free.

“I can’t trust you! I can’t just believe what you're saying!” he says, kicking up a ring of fire.

They keep fighting close range, pushing each other into the walls over and over until a loud rumbling sound is heard. 

“These walls weren’t built to last through all this pressure!” Ike shouts over the rumbling. Rocks start tumbling down from the ceiling. The path they came from begins to get blocked off. The falling rocks creating a dirt fog in the tunnel. Zuko squints as he continues to focus on Kai with his one good eye.

He gives Kai a swift kick to the ribs, and Kai bows down in pain. Zuko means to deliver a last blow over the top of Kai's head but Kai tackles Zuko by the waist. They begin grappling on the ground. Kai was on top of Zuko and began punching him in the face, as Zuko lay there, unable to free himself. 

Then there is a loud thud and Kai falls off of him. Zuko squints above, his bad eye closing even further as a black eye forms. Ike is standing over him holding a large rock, now covered in blood.

“Ike,” Zuko grunts.

Ike holds out a hand to help Zuko up, “Come on we gotta get you out of here”. He puts Zuko’s arm around his shoulder so he can help him out. The tunnel is crumbling around them. Zuko stops.

“Wait, we can’t just leave him here. He’ll die. We’ve gotta take him with us.”

Ike looks back towards the unconscious Kai. He leans Zuko onto the wall and goes back to carry Kai on his back. Zuko limps alongside him toward the exit of the tunnel. 

They manage to exit the tunnel right as it collapses behind them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm kinda glad that I split this chapter and the last chapter cuz this ended up being a bit longer than planned... it took me so long to edit and I think even now I'm not completely satisfied.  
> Sometimes I feel like this story progresses too quickly, and I feel like I should spend a lot more time rounding out characters like Kai and Ike. But then other times I feel guilty that the literal main characters (the gaang) haven’t joined the story yet, and I feel like I need to hurry to get to that part. Anyway.  
> I always appreciate your comments even if I dont respond to them, I just never know what to say, but they do inspire me to keep writing. Thank you for reading.


	9. Chapter 9

The tunnel left them in the middle of the forest, as Ike had said it would. Through the trees, Zuko could make out the sun rising, barely peeking out over the horizon. Zuko wonders how long he’d been gone considering it was very late into the night when he’d been taken. The three trek back into town carefully, taking about thirty minutes to reach the apartment when normally it would’ve been about half that time. On the way they pass by the bar which has turned loud and boisterous. Zuko feels a stab of guilt for disappearing and not being able to help Ines with the bar today.

They reach the apartment, collapsing onto the floor of the living room from exhaustion. The loud crash of their fall, alerts Lucilia who had been in her room. She sees the three bloody and dusty men on the floor, and looks at Zuko.

“You took five hours and didn’t bring home any groceries,” she says.

Zuko chuckles, mumbling out a “sorry”

Zuko and Ike lay Kai out on the floor while Lucilia goes to get bandages and towels. They clean their own wounds and bandage each other while Lucilia takes care of Kai. After they were all wrapped up there was silence for only a second before Lucilia said, “So, does anybody want to fill me in on what happened tonight?”

Zuko sighs and averts his eyes, “Lucilia, I have not been honest with you…”

“No really?” she responded sarcastically.

He sighs and looks back at her, seeing nothing but support and understanding. He begins explaining how the night had gone, beginning from him returning from the butcher. He hesitates upon explaining why Kai had arrested him. But he trusts Lucilia, or he hopes he can trust her.

“So uhh, remember how we talked a while ago about how the crown prince had disappeared...”

“Yes…” she answers warily, narrowing her eyes.

“Well, uh, that’s me, I’m the crown prince...” he stutters, never looking away from her face, determined to gauge her reaction.

Lucilia doesn’t seem particularly shocked at this revelation. She gestures for him to continue and so he does. Explaining how Kai had put him in a cell, and that the soldiers were lied to about why he was imprisoned. And how Ike had helped him escape. She again narrows her eyes when Zuko mentions that Ike was a part of some sort of group that wanted to help him.

He has just finished his retelling of the night’s events, when Ines walks through the door, and looks at everyone, “What’s going on here?”.

The group heaves a collective sigh, as Ines sits down in the circle and Zuko begins his story anew.

He finishes his story again, quicker this time, omitting some details he judges not as important, Lucilia had been brewing tea for them during the second retelling and brings it into the living room for everyone.

Ines stays silent for a minute before saying, “Wow, you're the prince,”

“Yea,” Zuko nods nervously.

“Oh my Agni, I have been working and living with royalty,” she says astounded, Zuko nods again in confirmation, “So your name really isn’t Lee?”.

“No, it’s Zuko” he responds.

“Oh but you know, I knew there was something up. Your story and your behavior just didn’t match. Oh, but a prince, I could never have guessed that. You know I-”

“Now, why would your father have you locked away?” Lucilia interrupts Ines’ nervous rambling, taking a sip of her tea.

“I- When I was thirteen,” he begins, “I felt that I should start learning more about my duties. If I was going to one day be Fire Lord… So I begged and pleaded to be let into a war meeting, I was allowed, on the condition that I couldn’t talk or interfere with the meeting. I was really excited, I felt like I could finally do more for my nation,” he pauses, “But then, this one general, he had a plan. To sacrifice a whole division of new trainees, in order to gain a tactical advantage. I couldn't… I couldn't allow that. How could we sacrifice our own troops so needlessly? There must’ve been a better option… So I spoke out against the general. I yelled at him for his plan. And my father told me that for my disrespect… for speaking out... I would have to fight in an Agni Kai.” His voice shakes and Ines moves closer to rub his back, “I thought it would be fine, the General was old and I thought I could easily handle him. But when I turned around. It wasn’t the general I was facing but my father,” Zuko hears a shocked gasp coming from his audience as he stares into his tea, “I...begged for his forgiveness, I try to explain that I had meant no disrespect towards my father, that I was his loyal son..” Zuko touches the edge of his scar, “He told me that I needed to learn respect, and he… he burned me. I must’ve lost consciousness from the pain because the next thing I remember is waking up in a cell.” he finishes.

Silence fills the room as everyone processes that. While both Ines and Lucilia had been suspicious of the regime for a while, they would never have imagined that the Fire Lord would do something like that to his own son. Ines had imagined different things that could’ve caused the scar over the past week or so that Zuko had been with them. She thought maybe he did it himself, or it was an accident, or maybe he was attacked by a rogue soldier. But his own father? She chokes down a sob thinking of poor young Zuko having to deal with that.

Ike had known this story, heard it before, though never from the source itself. It was easy to feel disconnected from the story as it was told about people he had never met or known, and even though he hadn’t known Prince Zuko for long, he could tell by the tremble of his voice, and the suspicious moisture near his eyes, how badly affected he was by just retelling this years old story.

“Is that the truth?” they hear a voice ask from behind them. Zuko turns around to notice that Kai had woken up and was looking at him. 

“Yea that’s the truth”.

“We can prove it,” Ike chimes in for the first time since they had arrived at the apartment, “If you’ll come with us to our base, there’s a lot of people who know the truth, who were there when it happened,” he explained.

“Now,” Lucilia interrupts, “Who is this "Us" that you’ve been talking about?”

“We are a resistance army, we’ve been around for decades, ever since the war started and the genocide of the air nomads happened. Many people felt that what the Fire Nation was doing was not just, even then,” Ike explains. 

“And how do we know that this army is trustworthy? How do we know you are not trying to harm Zuko? To trick him?” Lucilia asks.

Kai interrupts, “Wait have you been working for this other army the whole time??” he asks.

“I can promise you we only have good intentions, but we don’t have the time to discuss everything now,” he says, “No doubt there are already officers running around town looking for us. It’ll only be a matter of time before they find us here. Prince Zuko, you cannot stay here. Are you willing to accompany me? I promise you, you do not have to help or join us if you do not want to. All I ask is that you give us a chance, but for now we need to get out of here,” he pleads.

Zuko nods, “I… I have felt wrong about how this nation has been treating its own citizens for a while now. Ever since I escaped imprisonment… maybe even before that. I won’t promise that I’ll join you or help you. But I promise that I’ll at least hear you out.” he says.

Kai grunts, attempting to sit up, “Me too,” he pauses, “I want to make my own mind up. See everything for myself, rather than believing what is told to me. I’ve lost a lot of friends and family in this war, in order to spread the Fire Nation’s greatness. I’d like to know the truth...about everything.” he says, looking at Zuko. 

Zuko and Kai hold eye contact for a few moments before he nods, “Alright,”. He stands up slowly, stumbling a little from the beating he had taken. Ike follows, “Go on, Prince, pack a bag, we need to be out of here soon,”

Zuko nods and begins collecting his few possessions into the same bag he had arrived in town with. He stops at the dual dao, and decides to strap them across his back rather than in the bag. He spares a quick thought for Nigai wondering how he is doing. 

Lucilia hands him some fruit and snacks for him to pack as well and in about ten minutes the group was out the door, with only minor complaints from Kai that he couldn’t go home and pack his own things. 

They snuck out of the apartment, looking around the corner down the main street, there were about a dozen soldiers searching up and down the street, breaking into random homes and establishments to check if Zuko was hiding there. It would only be a couple more minutes before they reached the alley that the apartment was in.

The group headed back up the stairs. Ike climbs up the railway of the staircase and from there, jumps and pulls himself onto the roof. Kai follows and, after a little bit of grumbling, Kai accepts Ike’s outstretched hand and climbs onto the roof. Zuko turns and hugs Ines and Lucilia goodbye, thanking them for everything before he also pulls himself onto the roof. Immediately reaching out for Ike’s hand.

“Well?” Lucilia asks, “Are you really going to stay?” she asks.

“Well of course, the bar needs tending, and you're pregnant, I can’t leave you alone,” she responds, still staring at the roof.

Lucilia scoffs, “ What? You think I need you? Ridiculous! I can always find other people to help, you know who needs you? That kid there!” she spits.

“I don't know whether I should be offended by that,” Ines admits.

“Stop focusing on the small stuff!”

“Telling me I’m replaceable is small stuff?!”

“You are missing out on your destiny, Ines”

Ines looks at the roof and then back at her sister. “But I don’t even have anything packed…”, immediately after saying that, Lucilia presents a bag from seemingly nowhere, handing it to Ines.

“I only packed the things you truly need. You have way too much stuff anyways, a bit materialistic, if you ask me. Maybe this trip will do you some good, learn some humility”.

Ines looks at her in shock. She looks at the bag then up to the roof, she looks back at her older sister and nods. Ines jumps onto the balustrade and from there pulls herself onto the roof. Lucilia hears a whispered “You guys, wait,” as she heads back into her home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I usually reread and edit my chapters about three times before posting them, just to make sure they're perfect. But let me tell you, you get so sick of reading the same stuff over and over again. So that is why uploads are a bit slower. Anyways Zuko has finally taken some action, instead of just thinking, and he's got companions now, thats fun. We're almost done with Part one of the story, only two chapters left wow.


	10. Chapter 10

Zuko and the group had successfully left Gaha without being spotted. They had stayed close to the roofs, crawling along the tiles, never lifting themselves up other than to jump across the rooftops or look down beneath for any officers.

They had left the town early in the morning, and though they were all tired from a lack of sleep and the nights events, they didn't stop until nighttime. Having marched a great distance, in hopes of not being caught. That night they laid down some blankets on the forest floor and passed out within minutes, having spoken less than a dozen words to each other since they had left.

The next few days were much the same, with communication being a lesser priority than just getting as far from Gaha as possible. 

It was now day four on the road, and Ike had assured them that if they had not been caught by now, then chances were they'd be safe for the rest of the journey. Though the rest of the group seemed to take a little longer to believe this. The hyper vigilance and anxiety they have felt over the past few days took more than a few words of reassurance to dissipate. Ike was leading their little march in the direction of the stronghold. Holding the compass that Lucilia had packed for Ines. 

Zuko sighs, exhausted from walking under the blistering sun.

Kai groans, “God, can you stop that?”

“Hmm?”

“All that sighing! It’s fucking annoying man!”

“Oh...sorry…” Zuko responds, looking back at his shoes as he shuffles forward on the dirt road.

And Kai, despite having gotten what he wanted, feels guilty at having yelled at Zuko for something so silly. The group drops back into silence, with only the sounds of nature and their footsteps to accompany them.

“Hey! Anyone want to play I spy?” Ines asks, unnerved by the silence and the tension.

The rest of the group groans at the suggestion. 

Ines pouts, “Sorry, just trying to start some sort of conversation,” She looks towards Ike who was walking a couple steps in front of the rest of the group, “Ike! Say how old are you?”

“Huh? I’m turning 26 soon I guess,”

“Cool!”

An awkward silence lingers that response, as the conversation drew its natural end.

“W-What about you?” Ike asks, suddenly speaking up.

“Huh?”

“How old are you?”

“Oh I’m 23…”

“Cool…”

“Yup... ” she answers.

She opens her mouth ready to ask Kai the same question, when Zuko interrupts her.

“Ike?" he asks.

"Hmm?"

"So... how did you end up in this secret army? And what is it? You said you’d explain more later, but it’s now a lot later, and you haven’t said anything,”

He sighs “How do I start this...

"When the war started 100 years ago, there were actually a lot of people against it. The nations had been more united back then I guess. And many people had family and friends that were air nomads, and they did not feel... right, I guess, for lack of a better word, about what the Fire Nation was planning on doing to them. So, some people came together to protest, or rebel, and stuff, against this war. Fire Lord Sozin eventually found out about these rebels and began suppressing them.

"The Fire Nation was not only raging war on all other nations but also on its own people. Yet despite all of Sozin's efforts, despite all the propaganda he enforced in the schools, there were still a few people who disagreed with him. Not as many as before his efforts, but enough to try and start something. That ‘something’ was the resistance..."

"Is it seriously just called the resistance?" Ines asks.

"I guess it does get kinda weird just calling it the resistance… I know there was some talk a couple years a go about a name, and I think we settled on Hidden Dragon, though the council rejected that suggestion. Apparently it's easier to keep a secret organization secret, if it doesn’t have a name. But whatever. So... back then, it was just a handful of people, that came together and created a plan. A long term plan, to, I guess stop the war, and bring balance back to the world?”

“So wait,” Ines begins, “They started this whole thing 100 years ago?”

“Yup,”

"So, you guys have been fighting in this war for 100 years? And you haven’t been able to do anything?” Zuko asks.

“Well… we’ve done some stuff… we have infiltrated most sectors of the army and over some nobles, even if we don't have full control over them… It was a hard time coming alright? After all the suppression tactics from Sozin a lot less people were interested in joining. A lot were scared, more were brainwashed into thinking the war was just. It took about half that time to grow to barely 100 people. Not to mention all the times one of ours was caught and tortured for information, and sometimes they'd reveal our location so we’d have to pick up and leave and we lost a lot of people through that… It’s been difficult to say the least... But now we have you,” Ike cheers up gesturing towards Zuko.

“Me?”

“Yeah you! A lot more people are going to join and help now that they know the prince is on our side!”

“I don't know if I have that sort of influence…”

“Sure you do! People don't even have to know you personally, as long as they know there is a member of the royal family involved, they’ll have hope,”

“Right... “ Zuko responds, unsure. Zuko didn't know how to feel about this. If he were to join this army, he'd like to be more than just an empty figure head. He'd like to do something to help. So many things have happened in the past few years that he has had no power or control over. Zuko feels overwhelmed, this army had done nothing in the past 100 years, and now suddenly everyone had hope and was motivated, because of him? What could he do that a whole army of people couldn’t do in 100 years?

"I was born into the resistance, as were my parents" Ike continues, unaware of Zuko's inner turmoil, "My grandmother, I'd heard, was of the Water Tribe but married my Fire Nation grandfather, and my family joined the rebellion when the Fire Nation began targeting my mother's former nation. I was born in the headquarters of the rebellion, where we're headed. It's a city called Abahas. All official documents still list it as a totally normal city, though it now houses solely the people of the resistance.

"When I was 18 I wanted to join the movement you know? Not everyone who grows up in it has to fight for the resistance, a lot of people just work as farmers or merchants, but anyways, the resistance had me enlisted in the army on home territory. So I trained for a couple years, and spent a couple more as a guard for the city…

"Then, uh, at one point I was tasked to accompany one of our people, who is a noble, back to their home city for protection. And at some point the carriage was stopped by soldiers. They asked for the papers for all the guards on board, and mine unfortunately had me listed as working on the base at Gaha. They were only fake papers, not meant to really be looked at seriously, but they were, so once I had aided the noble home I was immediately sent 'back' to Gaha… Oh well it all worked out in the end… I still managed to get in contact with the officers and they told me to just stay there... I did send a letter to them before we left… so they hopefully know of our arrival, and maybe manage to do some damage control back in town.

"Ever since the agni kai, the whole resistance has been looking for you. So finding you in Gaha was so lucky,” He laughs, “I should be glad Kai brought you in.”

Ike goes on to explain all the lies that had been told about Zuko's disappearance. Kai and Ines chime in with the stories they've heard.

Self doubt fills Zuko's mind, unaware of his surroundings until he trips over a rock, Kai catching him just in time. 

“T-thanks”

Kai grunts in response.

Zuko had been wary around Kai at first, he had been on the other side not too long ago after all. Though Zuko was sure he had already seen the cracks in his beliefs back when they were arguing by his cell, he still hadn't expected him to change his mind so immediately.

“So if you ended up in the army by accident, how’d you end up there?” Ines asked Kai, as if on the same wavelength as Zuko.

Kai grunts, “I just did…”

Ines looks towards Ike in question, though he just shakes his head at her. Wordlessly informing her to leave it.

Twenty minutes had passed when Kai sighs, “I… I have had doubts about this war for a while now…” he begins, “I came from a military family, my father fought in the war, and so do all of my elder brothers. I was raised in a family whose sole purpose it seemed was to fight and to war. It was my mother who taught me compassion and kindness…”

Zuko thinks they are very similar in that regard. 

“I would constantly get into fights at school, with all the other kids, came home bruised and bloody everyday. I wanted to be like my dad, and my brothers. Who constantly talked and wrote to me about the war. About the troops they've defeated and the people they've killed. Looking back on it that was definitely not something I should’ve been taught about so young, but I thought it was cool back then… And they probably just wanted to entertain me or something… My mother was the one who patched me up after every fight, who berated me and told me to treat others with kindness. Who, when I spoke ill of the other nations, taught me better...

"I do like to believe that some of what she said did come through to me, even back then, but.. I still joined the army. I really didn’t have any other options, we came from a poorer town, nearly everyone who was young and fit was a soldier. They had recruiters standing outside of the school everyday, waiting until we hit 15. I… avoided it for a while. Told my family I wanted to finish school first. But when I turned 17 and graduated… I didn’t have any more excuses… There were so many expectations of me, so I joined. Never felt quite right about it, but I still did it.

"I have never been on the front lines, I was immediately sent to Gaha, so I’ve never had to kill anyone. But a lot of the others at the base have stories… A lot of them were transferred to Gaha due to injuries and stuff. They liked to talk a lot. I don’t know how much you’ve heard Ike… I know we didn’t really run in the same groups, but the guys I used to hang with… they were so proud of what they’ve done… bragging about rape and murder. It just...never seemed right to me. But I mean, even at the base they made us sometimes read those reports of how much better the world is doing, you know?”

Ike snorts, “Oh yeah, I remember those, a whole load of bull if you ask me,”

“Yea I didn’t really know that. Despite what these guys had told me they’d done, and despite what my mother taught me. I still believed it all…”

The sun had begun setting over the course of their conversations, and Ike had decided that they should settle down. They found a small clearance in the woods, the grass was overgrown and tickled their feet as they lay out their sleeping bags. Kai was the only one without anything and he had been sharing a sleeping mattress with Ike.

The campfire had been difficult to start due to the recent rainfall. All the branches and sticks were damp, and it took a lot of firebending for a spark to take. 

The dinner for the day was a handful of strange orange round fruit they had found hanging in trees a couple miles back, as well as some of the jerky that had been packed.

Ines and Ike are immersed in conversation while Kai and Zuko’s side seems deathly silent.

“Could you pass me the-”

“Oh, right, here,”

“Thanks…”

They continue eating in silence.

“I-”

“Huh?” Zuko asks.

“I wanna, uhh, apologize for, you know, fighting you and yelling at you, I know now that you’re a pretty chill dude. And that I was probably wrong about a lot of things”

“Oh that's okay. I’m sure it can’t be easy, having grown up being taught one thing, to then discover most of it was lies,” Zuko admits, looking towards the fire.

“I-I was thinking that what you’re doing is really brave.” Kai continues.

“O-oh… thanks,”

“Yea, you know, I’m sure things must’ve been hard after that Agni Kai… I think you must be pretty brave to come along and even listen to what these people are saying.”

Zuko snorts, “To be honest with you, I am scared shitless. I don’t know what I’m doing half the time.”

“Really, dude? You don’t seem it”

“Yeah, well…”

Their conversation trails off awkwardly right around the same time that Ike and Ines’ seems to end.

“So uhh,” Ike speaks up nervously, “What about you? We both talked about our life stories, what is yours Ines?”

“Oh… Well its kinda boring... Nothing big… My parents, they weren’t in love or anything, but they fooled around and my mom got pregnant so they got married anyway. They might not have loved each other but they were good friends and good parents, though I wouldn’t really know, Mom died when I was around 4 and dad... My dad’s biggest dream was to own a bar, but he was stuck working as a fisherman in our coastal town. With mom gone and the state of the town, we didn’t really have the flexibility to change careers... One day, our little island town’s mountain started spewing lava. You know how it is. 

"Soo dad died, it wasn’t the lava, but the smoke. Somehow I guess my sister and I survived though I hardly remember it. Apparently we were sick for some time, but because we were younger we recovered. Anyways, we ended up leaving the island, to the mainland where a distant aunt took us in. She wasn’t the greatest but at least she took us in. As soon as Lucilia became old enough, she left and took me with her. Started the bar, in honor of dad.

"So yea, nothing super interesting. Most people today probably have similar experiences. I'm certainly no prince,” she jokes gesturing at Zuko.

“Yeah well, my life might not have been boring. But I think I’d prefer that.”

“Oh come on, I get that things have probably been bad these last few years, but growing up in the palace as a prince can’t have been too bad”

“I don't know… I guess things were still pretty good when Mom and Lu Ten were alive… Things went kind of downhill when I was suddenly crown prince, and had a lot more duties and responsibilities on me. There was a lot of training… that I was really bad at, which my father didn’t like at all. I don't think I realized when I was younger, how much my mother probably dealt with. She probably protected me and Azula from the brunt of his anger problems. He used to get pretty violent but it was manageable... and then things went…” he takes a deep breath, “A lot, a lot downhill… But you guys know that,”

Zuko finishes, gnawing on his bottom lip.

“It’s gotten late, maybe we should call it a night now. We can always talk more later” Ike comments.

“Right, sure,” Kai chimes in, pulling the attention away from the quiet boy beside him. As they all get up for bed, Ines hugs Zuko, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed…”

“That's okay,”

She strokes his back for a second, smiling warmly at him. And Zuko, who had been remembering his last few months in his cell, is pulled out of his thoughts. Feeling reassured. 

They sleep a little closer to each other that night. Feeling safe amongst each other.

Three weeks of traveling later, they finally reach the gates of the Abahas, the stronghold of the resistance. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just so yall know, Kai is 19 and Zuko is 16. So this group is more aged up than the Gaang.  
> I wanted to take the time to give a little more story to these characters even though its not really necessary or really plot relevant. It's mostly supposed to show them growing closer together, becoming friends, you know.  
> Please don’t ever pay attention to the names I give places and things. I come up with city names by keyboard smashing and turning that into a somewhat coherent word.  
> I hope you liked this chapter! :)


	11. Chapter 11

In front of the group stood two massive wooden doors, surrounded by a, at least 10 foot tall, rock wall. A walled city. Zuko thinks back to the geography lessons he took as a child and he definitely doesn't remember hearing about a walled city within the Fire Nation.

Before them the doors creak open, inside of which stood a buff looking older man.

He was wearing a simple red robe, over darker red loose pants. Muted red tones covering him head to toe. He had a square head and a broad nose. A long goatee covered his chin, reaching to almost the bottom of his neck.

As the group approaches him, he moves to bow in the traditional fire nation bow, at 90 degrees, with one fist against the flat palm to simulate a flame.

“Prince Zuko, we have been expecting you,” he says.

“Ah… thanks, I guess?” Zuko responds, shaking the man’s hand.

“This is Daisuke, he basically runs everything” Ike chimes in, introducing the two, “Sir, this is the Prince,” Ike bows, “I’m sorry for leaving my station!”

“At ease son, you did nothing wrong, in fact you’ve helped us in ways that your old position never could” 

Ike rises back up with a grin on his face. Daisuke turns towards Zuko.

“I don’t actually run everything, there is a council, and we make decisions together.” he says, “regardless, could I have a word with you in private. Not to worry an assistant will show your friends to their temporary lodging, and you’ll follow them shortly,” he says.

Ines steps up, “Hey, no way! We are not getting separated this soon after getting here. We’re not gonna leave Zuko alone with you guys!” she says.

“No Ines, it’s okay,” Zuko says. 

“Zuko are you sure?” Kai asks, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“Yeah guys, don’t worry about it.”

“Alright..” Kai agrees, though reluctantly, and pulls Ines with him who was still staring at Zuko.

Zuko turns back to the man, “What was it that you wanted to talk about?” he asks.

“Now Prince Zuko I really would like to take the time to introduce you to our city, allow us to get to know each other. But I’m afraid due to current circumstances, there are some other… priorities…” He takes a breath, closing his eyes, he raises his hand to press at the top of his nose, clearly stressed and frustrated with his job. “Prince Zuko, how much do you know about this war?” he asks.

“Well back when I was in the palace I was taught a lot about it. I have since realized that a lot of those teachings were lies, though I do not specifically know which ones were lies and which ones weren't”

Daisuke nods, “I see... the fact that you are able to acknowledge the lies that are taught to our children, shows your strength. For many others it has taken years to unlearn what was instilled in us from a young age” he comments.

Zuko looks down in shame, "I really... I have experienced a... unique situation in which I was able to come to those conclusions quicker. I'm sure if certain things in my past had not happened I would still be disillusioned about the grandeur of the Fire Nation," he replied.

Daisuke studies Zuko's face for a moment before continuing, “Prince Zuko we… we could win the war, if we joined our troops with the Earth Kingdom’s and asked the water tribes for help, we could stand a real chance. Just in terms of numbers, we have many more soldiers combined. There is a real chance for us. The problem lies with...”

“With what?”

Daisuke sighs, “Well, what would we do after that? Would the council of the resistance enact themselves of rulers over the Fire Nation? If the rule of the nation isn’t continued by the royal family then who’s to say the other nations won’t want to have a say too?”

“So what are you trying to say…?” 

Daisuke sighs, “I’m saying… We’d like to work with you, Prince Zuko” he says.

“I’m not going to be your puppet,” Zuko grunts out through clenched teeth.

“That is not my intention, believe me… How do I make this clear…?” He thinks deeply, rubbing his goatee. “Why don’t you sit in on our next council meeting? We believe you should know of everything that goes on, we mean for there to be complete transparency between us. What better way than for you to be a part of the people who make the decisions!” he exclaims, excited about his new idea.

Zuko frowned, considering the preposition, before answering, “Alright… I’ll be there”

Daisuke smiles warmly at him, “I’m glad to hear that Prince Zuko,” he calls over another assistant to lead Zuko to the lodging he was to share with his friends.

As he leaves, Zuko looks back at Daisuke, who was now busy discussing something with a soldier. Trusting others has been difficult for him, he had issues with it even when he was a kid and his sole tormentor was his sister. But after those years spent imprisoned, betrayed by everyone he knew... It hadn't been easy to trust Ines and the others with his story, nor to travel and sleep alongside them, when they could easily kill him, but he did, maybe he could afford to trust this guy too. 

The next meeting was a week away. 

Zuko and the group had been assigned a random apartment in the inner city, it contained a room for each person as well as a living room, kitchen, and bathroom. Ike had not joined them in their apartment, instead he had said that he was going to spend the nights back at his parents house, but promised to show them through the city once they were ready.

Zuko and the others unpack their meager belongings, and take turns bathing, as they all reeked from three weeks of only washing off in streams.

His room isn’t huge, definitely no comparison to his quarters at the palace, but much grander than anything he’s had in a while. He has an actual bed with a bed frame and mattress. The closet already contains some clothes though many are too loose on him, hopefully they’ll fit better when Zuko gains more weight.

Ike arrived a half hour later, and takes them through the city. Starting in the bustling market, filled with shopkeepers selling all sorts of wares. Then strolling through some of the residential district, which included an introduction to Ike’s parents. It was supposed to be a quick hello, but the group ended up staying for so long that it was dark by the time they left. Ike had sadly called it a day, telling them they could go tour through the rest of the city tomorrow. The first night ended in the stronghold and the group was exhausted.

Zuko laid awake in the most comfortable bed he had slept in in years. Exhausted beyond compare from weeks of traveling. And yet he couldn’t sleep. He’d close his eyes and just lay there, waiting for it to happen. He concentrated so hard on sleeping that his eyes were starting to hurt. Suddenly a knock sounds from his door, he sits up, leaning on his elbows, “Yeah?” he asks.

Ines cracks the door open a bit and peeks inside, “Hey,”

“Hey,” Zuko smiles softly.

“Can’t sleep?” she asks.

Zuko sighs, looking down, “Not really, no,”

“Yeah, neither can we… You wanna join us?”

Zuko looks up confused, he throws the blankets off and heads after Ines.

In the living room was a big blanket pile, in the middle of which, Ines and Kai were sitting.

“Hey,” Kai whispers.

“Hey,” Zuko whispers back.

“We also couldn’t sleep… Thought maybe we got too used to sleeping together these past few weeks,” Ines explains.

Zuko looks around, “No harm in trying right?”

Ines smiles up at him and he goes to get his blanket and pillows to join the pile.

Once he had lain down, he felt the tiredness washing over him.

“Too bad Ike can’t join us…” Ines mutters.

“Yeah…”

“Maybe we can ask him tomorrow,” Ines ponders

“That’d be nice,” Zuko hears Kai say as he drifts off, finally, into sleep.

The next day Ike shows up again and they have a quick breakfast, before heading out again. First off Ike brought them to the town hall, in which the council meetings were held. It was a larger building than most others in the city, both in width and height. Zuko wanted to check it out some more but Ike told him he’d be back in a few days anyway. Apparently Ike had packed their schedules full this week. Hoping to finish showing them everything today, so they could get to the fun stuff tomorrow.

“What fun stuff?” Zuko had asked.

“Well you know! Like Ostrich horse racing, or playing a game of Dodging ball!”

Zuko grunts, crossing his arms, “Seriously? What are we, a bunch of kids?”

“Never too old to have some fun!” Ines chimes in laughing.

“Do you agree with this?” Zuko asks Kai, his eyes pleading for support.

“Well uhh, I wouldn’t know what else to do. Oh but maybe we can spend some free time training! That’d be a good way to pass the time,” Kai responds.

Zuko grunts turning away from him.

“Yeah! Speaking of training, let’s over to the military camps!” Ike shouts, stretching his arms over Zuko and Kai, pulling them along.

Ike got them a carriage and they took a forty minute ride through the city to the military camps, which sat at the outskirts of the city. Though apparently there were other outposts scattered throughout the city. 

The carriage left them in front of a wide building, behind it was a field. Ike leads them around the building straight to the field where the group could see the soldiers training. Immediately in front of them were the non-benders. Practicing sword fighting, archery, and hand-to-hand combat. Further down Zuko could see the firebenders practice, and further to the right were…

“Is that?” Zuko asks.

“That's right! Waterbenders!”

“What the hell are they doing here?” Kai asks, shocked.

“Over the years, the resistance has interfered with several waterbending prisons. We never broke into any of them, that would’ve been too noticeable. But here and there, you know… A carriage carrying waterbending prisoners gets attacked by wolves and the bodies disappear. A couple guards “kill” some of the waterbenders and they disappear. We help out where we can.” Ike explains.

“Wow…” Ike says, watching the waterbenders speechless.

“And they’ve just stayed here? Why didn’t they go home after they were freed?” Zuko asks.

“Hmm,” Ike thinks, “Well I don’t really know… There’s been waterbenders living here since as long as I can remember… Maybe ask one of them, or you can ask Hitti.” Ike says.

“Hitti?” Ines wonders.

“Who’s Hitti?” Zuko echoes.

“Ah, Hitti is a part of the council, and basically the spokesperson for the water tribe members here. Remember that blue neighborhood we went through yesterday?” the group nods, “That’s their water tribe district. Of course not all water tribe members live there, but the majority do. Anyways if you want to know why they stay here and help us, your best bet is to ask her. You’ll see her soon anyways,”

The group watches the waterbenders train for a couple minutes more when they are disrupted by a man around Ike’s age.

"Ah! General Wang Shu!" Ike calls out upon seeing him walk towards them, "That's the general in charge of the entire military, he is also a part of the council," Ike explains to them.

"Nice seeing you again Ike!" The man says roughly, slapping Ike on his shoulder hard enough for him to falter. The man's mustache bounced with his laugh. He had a stocky build, it was clear he was a well trained man, at least physically. Though the man's aloofness makes Zuko wonder for his mental dexterity.

The man turns towards Zuko, "And you must be the prince! Good to see you!" He holds out his hand, which Zuko takes, not expecting the man to squeeze as harshly as he does. "And who might you two be?" the man asks turning toward Ines and Kai.

"Good to meet you sir, my name is Kai, and I was once a part of the 26th division working near southern planes. I have been accompanying the prince for the past few weeks," Kai reports, clearly brought back to his military roots, at the mans presence.

"Hi, I'm Ines, I'm also a friend of Zuko's" Ines responds.

The general greets them both warmly, before offering to show them around. 

"Oh, well, I don't know, General Shu, we have some other things planned..."

"Come on now! Don't be shy!" The man shouts, grabbing Ike by the shoulder and pulling him towards the entrance of the large building.

The group hesitates for a moment before following after.

Wang Shu showed them through the building, leading them into every single room and somehow having essays to say about every object within said room. By the time they were done the group had felt like they had spent days listening to the man prattle on. It had gotten dark outside, and there were no other people left on the premises other than the on duty soldiers.

Wang Shu walked them towards their waiting carriage, biding them goodbye with a "Let's talk again soon!" as the group suppressed a groan. Ike reassured them that there wasn’t much else to see other than the farmlands, which they can just skip, so that starting tomorrow, they could take it easy. That evening Ines asked Ike if he’d stay the night, and they spent another night laying next to each other on the living room floor.

The next morning was a slow start, Ines and Ike went out for breakfast while Zuko and Kai decided to sleep in for a bit longer.

“Typical teenagers,” Ines had muttered. Zuko would’ve complained typically, but he was too tired.

They had gotten up later, taking their time to get up. Eventually after they had both eaten something from the kitchen and relieved themselves, they were both sat back in the pillow fort without anything to do.

After twiddling their thumbs for a bit in awkward silence, Kai speaks up, “Listen, Zuko…”

“Hmm?”

“I wanted to thank you…”

“Thank me?”

“For knocking some sense into me back then, back in Gaha… I-I know I’ve said this before but I was… misguided. I thought I knew everything and I thought I could trust in the nation and in our Firelord, even though I should’ve known better… I honestly don’t think I would’ve come along with you guys in the beginning if it weren't for our talk, when you were in that cell…” He takes a deep breath, “And I’m glad I did come along…”

Zuko smiles at him, “Don’t have to thank me for that, dude… I was also wrong at one point… Who knows where I would be now if Dad hadn’t imprisoned me… I’d probably still believe in him and in the nation myself. And he burned my face off,” Zuko chuckles darkly, “I remember waking up in that cell, I believed I had been kidnapped for such a long time… That my father would still come and rescue me… I’d scream at the guards that I was a prince and that they’d suffer for their actions. I didn’t even completely believe what happened until I’d escaped… Even now I find it hard… that my own Father would do that to me…” Zuko gets silent for a second before smiling up at Kai, “So don’t worry, I know what it’s like to be wrong, and I know how hard it is to learn better,”

“Right…” Kai finishes awkwardly, "Hey... you get nightmares right?"

"Huh?"

"When we were traveling, there'd be nights that you'd make some... noise, I guess" Kai says, "It's not like you were really loud or something!" he hurries to add on.

"Oh... Sorry, didn't mean to wake you," Zuko apologizes, looking like he'd rather be anywhere else at the moment.

"No! It's not like it's your fault or anything, it's more like, uh, I woke up the first few times from Ines waking you up. And then you two always walked off somewhere together. So I guess after that I started paying a bit more attention."

"Right..."

"What I really just wanted to say is... You can also come to me... If you have problems, I don't mind helping you, I don't know, talk it out," Kai explains, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Thanks..."

"You haven't gotten any lately though?"

"I have actually..."

"Oh..."

"I guess I'm getting better at hiding them. I don't know whether that's a good thing or a bad thing,"

"O-Oh, well you can still talk to me anytime you know?"

Zuko smiles at Kai nervously, "Say..."

"Yeah?"

"Do you think... This whole council thing... They definitely just offered me the position because I'm the prince right?"

"Would there be any other reason?"

Zuko huffs, "No I guess not,"

Kai frowns at Zuko's depressed demeanor, "That doesn't mean it's a bad thing,"

"Huh?"

"Daisuke and the rest of the council might have only asked you because you're the prince, but that doesn't mean it's a bad thing,"

"I don't deserve it,"

"Maybe... But that doesn't mean you can't still do some good. You can still work hard and help people and earn your position even when you already have it," Kai explains. Zuko hums, acknowledging he heard him but unable to come up with a response.

After another couple minutes of sitting around they left to search for Ines and Ike, encountering them at the market. Ike excitedly whipped out his schedule and their following days were filled to the brim with different activities, leaving the group exhausted.

At the end of the week, Ike walked him towards the town hall. They entered through the doors, giving the guards posted a short nod. The guards let them through without question.

Zuko had had time to think about this meeting for the past week. He's sure the only reason this option is even open to him is because he is the prince. The council might not want to puppeteer him but they still need him. They need him and that's why they're giving him this. Zuko doesn't feel good about accepting a position that he has not worked for, he doesn't deserve it. And while he had accepted many things in his youth for free because of his status, these past weeks have humbled him. Meeting with common people who wake up every morning and work so they can eat at the end of the day, hearing Nigai's story, and Ines', and Kai's, he's learnt that he has had more handouts than most. That's why he'll accept this position in order to do some good. He'll join this council and he'll work hard to make sure he earns the position. He won't waste it. And he won't be ungrateful. He has been given a great chance here to restore honor to his name, to his family's name, and to the fire nation, and he won't squander it.

Ike leads him to the doors and squeezes his shoulder in support, before Zuko turns, alone, to open the doors.

Upon entering, he sees the other leaders already seated. Including Zuko, there were four, Daisuke, Wang Shu, and Hitti. Hitti being the only one Zuko hadn’t met yet, though his interactions with both others were brief. Hitti had long hair, braided in several sections and adorned with blue, white, and grey beads. She was wearing standard fire nation robes, ones that were lightweight and usually meant for a heavier heat than what was common for the current climate. Though her blue eyes and tan skin marked her as water tribe no matter what her attire.

She greets him uneasily, Wang Shu smiles, and Daisuke didn't acknowledge him at all, instead he seemed to be busy reading some sort of report. Zuko waves and sits down in the free seat between Wang Shu and Daisuke, opposite Hitti.

Once he is seated, Daisuke begins speaking, “We are so glad to have you here, Prince Zuko” he says.

Hitti grunts, glaring at Zuko. Zuko had a feeling she didn’t really want him here. "Thanks for having me," he answers back, polite just like his mother had taught him.

“Now, coming to the first order of business," Daisuke begins, "There have been reports from several fire nation ships. The avatar has returned”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope yall didn't get whiplash from all the new characters I introduced lol  
> Also why do I always write so much awkward dialogue. Why is everyone so awkward?  
> Anyways next chapter we'll finally get to meet the Gaang! How exciting  
> Im not completely satisfied with this chapter. But I was honestly getting sick of figuring it out, I just need this to be out of my way so here it is. I'll probably tweak it a little over this week.  
> Like I said a couple chapters ago, updates are going to be slower because Im starting University again. Expect updates to come biweekly or maybe monthly.  
> 


	12. Chapter 12 - Part Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~time skip~

The wind pushes Sokka's hair back, his hands gripping Appa's reins tightly.

"We left Uncle..." Toph mutters.

"We had to," Sokka attempts to mollify, frustrated with himself at how his plan had turned out.

Toph humms, Sokka turns around to look at her, her eyes were downturned and her lips pressed paper thin. His eyes slide over to where Katara is sitting, holding onto Aang's limp body, doing her spirit magic thing.

"He'll be okay, right?" Toph asks, pulling Sokka out of his thoughts.

"He'll be fine. He is the Fire Lord's brother, I'm sure they can't do anything bad to him," he says, Toph must have not caught the uncertainty in his voice as all she does is nod in response.

"What are we going to do now?" she asks. Sokka looks down, unable to meet her unseeing eyes, unable to answer her question.

Katara suddenly gasps, and Sokka hears a low moan, he turns to see Aang's tattoos lighting up, as he opens his eyes

Katara hugs him close as she responds, "I don't know but we’ll figure it out".

* * *

“Why are we on a Fire Nation ship? Why is everyone dressed this way? And why am I the only one who's completely out of it?” Aang shouts, his words penetrating through the metal door, reaching Sokka and Toph who had been waiting outside. Sokka pushes himself off of the wall and takes a step forward, reaching for the door.

"Come on, the princess said she'd handle it," Toph interrupts him, grabbing him by the arm.

Sokka gnaws on his bottom lip in contemplation before relinquishing with a quiet "Alright". Toph accepts his surrender with a nod before turning and leading them out to the deck of the stolen Fire Nation ship. The metal of his Fire Nation boots clanking loudly with every step so unlike the sound of his usual fur boots.

As much as Sokka wants to help Aang, as much as he feels responsible for what happened back in that palace, he knows that Katara can help him much better than he can. She always was better at comforting people than him.

Sometimes he wonders if he is even good at anything, especially since Aang showed up and they started traveling. He always knew he would be weaker than everyone else due to the fact that he was a non-bender, but at least he could trust in his brain. He had always been the plan guy, the guy that everyone can rely on to figure shit out. There's no way he couldn't take what happened at Ba Sing Se personally.

Sokka and Toph sit down on a couple of empty crates. As Sokka pulls out his map, Bato, Pipsqueak, the Duke, and another soldier, Amaruk, move over to them. 

"Hey kid," he says clapping him on the shoulder as he moves to sit in front of him. Sokka mumbles a vague response and Bato pauses, "We'll figure something else out, even without the Earth Kingdom's troops," he tells him.

"Yeah... We're going to have to," he sighs, as the cogs of his mind groan to life, "We're going to have to get allies wherever we can, and just... still go at it on the day of the solar eclipse. There's no better opportunity to stop the Fire Nation than on that day. That is one of our only advantages, that and the fact that Aang is still alive. They definitely won't be prepared for the avatar".

Bato nods, as he listens in.

"Where are these allies supposed to come from?" Amaruk asks.

Sokka frowns, "Well..."

"Im sure we can find some more people!" Katara chimes in as her, Aang, and dad walk up to them. 

Aang looks around, confused at the gathered group. Sokka's eyes linger on the short patch of hair that had begun growing on Aang's head. “So what now?” Aang asks.

“We've been working on a modified version of the invasion plan.” Hakoda comments.

“It's _Sokka's_ invasion plan.” Katara adds sharply. Sokka eyes his sister and dad's interaction for a moment, there was definitely a lot of tension there, though there's not much that he can do about it, he completely understands how she feels.

“Yes, Sokka's plan. We won't be able to mount a massive invasion without the Earth King's armies, but the solar eclipse will still leave the Fire Nation vulnerable.” Hakoda adds.

Sokka tunes them out as his dad and Katara explain the rest of his modest plan to the avatar. A plan that didn't require any thinking or creativity. Just the same plan as before but with one thing changed.

“And what about my firebending training? What are we gonna do about that?” Aang asks, pulling Sokka out of his well of thoughts.

The group looks at each other skeptically.

“Well there’s really not much we can do,” Katara slowly admits, “Uncle Iroh is gone, caught by Azula, and we don’t know who we can trust to teach you,”

“You’re just going to have to go into the invasion with what you know now,” Sokka says.

“Yeah and it’s not like you know nothing about firebending, Iroh taught you some! And Jeong Jeong too! We can figure the rest out ourselves, like with waterbending before Pakku!” Katara attempts to cheer him up.

“The only thing they had taught me was to breathe! If I just start trying to figure this out by myself again I’ll hurt people!”

“Everyone quiet down!” Hakoda commands.

Sokka jolts in shock at his father's tone, looking up from the ground to see him staring east with a clenched jaw, Sokka looks over to see another Fire Nation ship, nearly identical to theirs, approaching.

Aang glares at the other ship, his grip tightens on his glider as his face screws up in pain from the sudden movements, “I’ll handle this, the avatar is back”.

“Aang wait! Remember, they don't know we’re not Fire Nation!” Katara shouts, holding onto Aangs arm.

“Everyone just stay calm, Bato and I will take care of this,” Hakoda says stepping forward, putting on his Fire Nation helmet. Aang nods and steps back, as they cover Appa and Momo and hide in a descended part of the ship.

The soldier from the other ship cross, demanding an explanation for their presence. Bato and Hakoda manage to reassure them for a brief moment before Toph shouts out, “They know!”

Toph grabs at the bottom of the ship, metalbending the ramp to disconnect from both ships as the soldiers on the ramp fall into the sea. Katara steps in right after Toph in an act of unfailing coordination and raises the water to push the other ship further away. 

As the Fire Nation soldiers swim back towards their ship and climb aboard, they begin catapulting fireballs. Amaruk and some of the other water tribes men had begun sailing and rowing the ship along to escape the Fire Nation, though without much success. Sokka grabs Aang and drags him inside of the ship safe out of sight. The others can handle this.

Sokka watches Toph begin to earthbend at the enemy ship, blocking any fireballs they send and retaliating with rocks or metal. Out of the corner of his eye he notices aang begin to step forward and swiftly stops him.

The ship lurches suddenly, and Sokka looks outside to see Katara do some weird hand motion, before the ship seems to stabilize again.

"I'm gonna give us some cover!" She shouts, and suddenly a huge wall of steam rises up in front of her. Obscuring both ships view of each other. Sokka feels a hollow pain in his gut at seeing his sister not only be so gifted in bending but also so smart in how she works with her talent.

Despite the wall of steam another fireball still manages to hit its mark, just a couple meters away from the entrance in which they were hiding.

“I can't just stand by and do nothing!” Aang argues with him.

“Aang, no! You're still hurt, and you have to stay secret! Just let us handle this.” Sokka pleads with him, holding onto him through his glider.

"Fine," Aang relinquishes, ripping his glider back out of Sokka's hand. Sokka loved the kid but he could be a real brat sometimes.

The steam starts to fade and Toph turns to him, "How we doing?" she asks.

“Things couldn't get much worse” he announces, right as the giant water serpent rises out from the sea behind him, “The universe just loves proving me wrong, doesn't it?”

“You make it too easy!” Toph shouts back.

The other ship shoots another fireball at them though instead end up hitting the giant serpent, which, in its anger, turns around and wraps itself around the Fire Nation ship.

Hakoda and the rest of the crew take this as the sign of good luck that it is and swiftly escape.

“Thank you, the universe!”

* * *

After narrowly escaping the Fire Nation and the Serpent, the group travel for a couple more hours, before anchoring at a port city. Sokka, Katara, and Toph decide to go into the town for some much needed dinner with the rest of the crew. They had asked Aang if he’d like to come along but he refused.

Sokka sighs, he hopes Aang doesn’t stay down for too long, as much as he understands how Aang must feel after having been defeated like that by Azula, they were counting on him to get better for this invasion. Shame fills him at the thought of depending on a literal 12 year old for ending a war. But what other choice did they have?

He sighs again, worry gnawing on his mind as Toph picks out a good smelling restaurant for them to try.

They aren’t gone for long, returning to the ship after barely two hours, Katara immediately heads to Aang's room to give him the food that they had brought along. Sokka was about to head to a card game with some of the rest of the crew when Katara runs up to them, Hakoda right behind her. “Aang left! We need to go after him!”

Sokka and Toph nod simultaneously, running to Appa, climbing aboard and flying off in less than ten minutes. 

They fly for hours, searching the sea and any nearby shores. And end up finding him washed up on the beach of a crescent shaped island with an overflowing volcano. Well, technically Appa had found him.

Momo hops off of Appa before he had even landed and licks Aang’s face, stirring him awake.

“You’re okay!” Katara shouts as they all come together for a group hug.

“I have so much to do.”

“I know, but you'll have our help”

“You didn't think you could get out of training just by coming to the Fire Nation, did you?” Toph teases.

“What about the invasion?" Aang asks.

"We'll join up with my dad and the invasion force on the day of the eclipse," Sokka says. 

Toph notices Aang's glider washing ashore, pointing it out to him. "It's better for now that no one knows I'm alive," he says before throwing his glider into the volcano's lava trails.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have actually rewritten this chapter about a dozen times, because, beginning with this chapter I had to figure out the rest of the story and I kept changing my mind about things and then I had to delete certain chapters and write new ones, but then I decided I wanted to keep them after all. Anyway the next five chapters that I had planned out are going to be completely scrapped but I'm certain about this one so I've decided to post it, even if the next ones are going to take a little bit longer.  
> 


	13. Chapter 13

After hours of traveling they find a cave to stay in, as well as a couple fire nation clothes. Though they had to steal those. With the aid of those they were able to go out into the closest town, eat some real food, and blend in with the locals. 

That was the goal at least, but Sokka had looked away for barely a minute and Aang disappeared. He sighed, already used to this behavior as stressful as it was, Aang would surely be back in their cave at the end of the day, talking about some crazy adventure and they could put it all behind them and move on. 

They could, in fact, not put it behind them and move on. 

Apparently, the clothes Aang had picked out for himself was a school uniform and he was forced to attend a fire nation school. Well if he was just forced to do it, that would be one thing, they could still leave this town behind no issues. But he wanted to stay! He wanted to attend again tomorrow! Was Sokka the only one here with some self preservation skills? When did Sokka have to become the adult? He wasn’t ready for this! He hasn’t even been whale hunting yet! Katara didn’t even say anything against it, and she’s supposed to be the voice of reason in this group!

“Aang, I'm trying to be mature and not immediately shoot down your idea, but it sounds... really terrible.”

“Yeah, we got our outfits. What do you need to go to school for?” Toph chimes in.

“Every minute I'm in that classroom, I'm learning new things about the Fire Nation. I already have a picture of Fire Lord Ozai.” he says, holding up a picture of Ozai, “And here's one that I made out of noodles!”, and holds up another picture.

“Impressive, I admit, but I still think it's too dangerous.” Sokka answers, admiring the craftsmanship on those noodles.

“Did you know Azula has a brother?”

“Huh?”

“Yeah! Apparently he died a while ago though,”

“Well at least we don't have to worry about another crazy person from that family,” Katara says and Sokka can't help but to agree.

“Uncle never mentioned anything about having a nephew,” Toph wonders out loud.

“Maybe it was too painful for him? Either way it's not information that is all that useful,” Sokka mentions.

“I guess we'll never find out about the secret river then. It goes right to the Fire Lord's palace. We were supposed to learn about it in class tomorrow.”

A secret river does sound a lot more useful… And it wasn’t like he could really convince them to leave especially when Toph and Katara aren’t even fully on his side. Maybe something good can come out of this, “Hmm, I am a fan of secret rivers ... fine, let's stay a few more days,” he concludes. 

A terrible conclusion in hindsight. The secret river was a lie, Aang got in trouble, and Sokka had to pretend to be married to his sister. Yuck. Also this mustache was not coming off, and it is really itchy.

And then that dance party they threw for Aang’s schoolmates ended up blowing their cover. Well whatever, it was about time for them to leave anyway. Too bad they didn’t manage to learn anything new, well except for the existence of that prince of course…

Well, at this point what they should focus on is the invasion. Nothing else.

* * *

The next time they heard of the prince was when Sokka began his training with Master Piandao. 

Piandao had just accepted him as a student and was leading him to a room to change into his training gear, when they pass through a hall featuring several portraits of several young men as well as two young women. Sokka shouldn't be surprised at that, after meeting Suki and the Fire Nation princess and her friends, he knows how tough women can be.

Underneath the portraits are presumably, the names of the people, as well as a year. The last one in the row, and also the latest one by year, featured a young boy, about Aang’s age, the name on the bottom was “Zuko” which didn’t bring anything to Sokka’s mind. The kid had more baby fat on his cheeks than Aang did though, and certainly more than the other people in the portraits. His attire seemed a lot more polished as well. He looks over at his mentor, noting that they had now been standing in place for quite a while, who was also focusing on the portrait with somber eyes and a frown marring his face, deeper than the one he normally had on.

“Was he important to you?” Sokka asks.

“Very much so,” he answers, still watching the portrait.

“What happened to him?”

“Ah… well he died in a tragic accident…”

Sokka continues observing the portrait, “Was he a student?”

Master Piandao chuckles lowly, “They all were,” he says motioning to the rest. Sokka had already figured that, he just wanted more information on this particular person. But if his mentor didn’t want to talk, he wouldn’t bother him about it. Sokka reads the year on the plaque, noticing that if this kid truly was Aang’s age at the time of the portrait, then now he’d be around Sokka’s age...

“Yes he was a very talented pupil of mine…” Piandao continues unprompted, “I’m sure you’ve heard of what happened… a shame,” he states. 

Sokka turns to him, confused, “Why would I know?”

“Oh you don't? That’s curious, everyone in the fire nation knows of the prince’s untimely demise…” Piandao responds, hiding a smile.

“Of course I know! Haha! I was just messing with you! I know all about the prince, and really so tragic what happened. Anyway we should really get started!” Sokka covers cunningly.

He later discovered his cover wasn’t that impressive, that and his name had given his identity away to his master far before he was ready.

Oh well, it all worked out in the end, now he has a space sword! And a pretty playing piece!

* * *

  
  


“It had been a quiet night. A night unlike any other, with a clear sky, filled with stars. The harmonious sounds of the night leading them gently to sleep. A night filled with potential for dreams and rest-”

“Sokka stop waxing poetic about the sleep you’re missing,” Katara mutters annoyed. 

Even with all the change that has been happening lately, bothering his little sister would always be one of his favorite past times. Besides it wasn’t his fault that her boyfriend had woken them up with all his been tossing and turning, muttering in his sleep words that sound a lot like “Roku” and “Sozin” and “Prince”.

“Spirit world?” Katara had asked.

“Definitely,” Sokka confirms. He looks over to Toph who was snoring loudly in her makeshift tent, “Tui and La, I’m jealous,”

His sister hmphs in agreement.

Aang suddenly stands with one swift move, and walks stiffly over to the rock he has been meditating on the previous day.

“It’s always so fascinating watching this,” Katara whispers to him.

“Hm,” Sokka responds disinterested. He didn't need to watch the whole process, he really just wanted the information Aang brought when he came back, more than that though right now he'd like to be able to go back to sleep.

Aang moves down to a squat and groans, his face soon turning more relieved.

“Is he…?”

“I think so…”

“Do they have bathrooms in the spirit world?”

“As a matter of fact,” Sokka says raising his finger factually, “They do not,”

Aang begins standing and balancing on one leg, windmilling his arms for balance.

“What do you think he’s doing in there?”

“Hmm,” Sokka murmurs, rubbing his nonexistent beard. He should've kept the mustache for longer, he thinks offhandedly, “I think… he’s surfing,”

Katara doesn’t answer with her own hypothesis as Aang suddenly puts his leg and his arm down, standing stock still, before falling backwards, off the rock.

“Op!” Sokka shouts as he rushes over to catch Aang before he falls.

“Roku!” Aang shouts, before opening his eyes, breathing heavily.

“Aang! You okay?”

“Can you three idiots be any louder!” Toph responds.

“Hah… Yeah I’m okay,” Aang answers.

“What happened?” His sister asks worriedly.

“Hah… I saw Roku and he showed me his past…”

“Well? Don’t leave us hanging twinkle toes,” Toph comments, now awake and standing beside Sokka.

“Roku he… used to be friends with Fire Lord Sozin, close friends, they did everything together. They trained together, learned firebending together, they even shared a birthday! They were celebrating together when the fire sages told Roku that he was the next avatar. Sozin even entrusted him with the crown of the crown prince, when Roku had to leave to learn the rest of the elements. He gave him his own crown! Sozin was the best man at Roku's wedding!”

“What happened?”

“I guess at some point they started wanting different things. Sozin wanted more… he wanted to expand the Fire Nation empire… and Roku disagreed,”

“What a dick!” Toph says.

“But Roku didn’t act on anything until he found out about the Fire Nation colonies. They fought and Sozin lost, Roku decided to spare him, due to their past friendship and they didn't see each other again until the volcano on Roku’s home island erupted and Sozin came to help.”

“Oh maybe he’s not such a bad guy after all!” Sokka comments.

“They managed to get everyone off the island but they couldn’t defeat the volcano. And Sozin… left, he escaped the Island without Roku, leaving Roku behind. He realized that with Roku dead, he could finally accomplish his plans. So he left him, knowing he'd die... And at the earliest convenience he also tried to make sure that the avatar couldn't be reborn to stop him again.”

“You mean, after all Roku and Sozin went through together, even after Roku showed him mercy, Sozin betrayed him like that?” Katara asks.

“It's like these people are born bad.” Toph cuts in.

“No, that's wrong. I don't think that was the point of what Roku showed me at all.”

“Then what _was_ the point?” Sokka questions.

“Roku was just as much Fire Nation as Sozin was, right? If anything, their story proves anyone's capable of great good and great evil. Everyone, even the Fire Lord and the Fire Nation have to be treated like they're worth giving a chance.” Aang says, looking around at his friends, “And I also think it was about friendships.”

“Do you really think friendships can last more than one lifetime?” Toph asks.

“I don't see why not.” Aang answers, reaching for Toph’s hand, while Katara grabs her other one.

“Well, scientifically speaking, there's no way to prove that …”

“Oh, Sokka, just hold hands with us.” Katara complains, pulling him in, as they all hold hands together.

They stand there for a couple minutes, taking in the ocean and the night sky. Contemplating the future and the past. There was so much responsibility resting on their shoulders, far more than a bunch of kids should have, but at least they had each other to get through it.

“Someone’s here,” Toph whispers as the bushes behind them begin rustling.

They separate from each other and get into battle ready positions, waiting for the assailant to show themselves.

Out steps a young man, Sokka’s age. Dressed in fire nation robes with long sleek hair tied half up into a top knot, a large burn scar covering the left side of his face.

“Ah! I have been looking for you avatar! Let me introduce myself, my name is Lee and I think I could aid in your mission,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow I can’t believe I cant go without Zuko for more than two chapters. And of course I had to make him show up right after Aangs great speech of everyone being capable of good and friendship. And of course, awkward Zuko has no sense of privacy or timing or anything and must talk to these people as soon as he meets them rather than waiting till morning.  
> Anyway I'm glad I managed to get this chapter out before the end of the year! Happy new year yall!


	14. Chapter 14

Sokka didn‘t like this new guy.

He just shows up out of nowhere talking about helping them, and at first everyone was suspicious of this stranger but after he talked about some secret army and a secret city, everyone else just decided to trust him!

"You can‘t just trust what this guy says! He could be lying! He could be working for the fire nation!“

"But the fire nation thinks we‘re dead right? Why would they send this guy to after us?“

"Who knows, maybe somewhere along the line we messed up, and they found out that we‘re alive and this guy is going to lead us into a trap!“ Sokka shouts.

"I promise I am not trying to harm you, I just want to help. Make things right.“ The guy, Lee, answers.

“He’s telling the truth,” Toph comments.

“Or he could just be a really great liar like Azula,”

“Hey! Say something that is completely untrue!” Aang answers.

“Umm my name is Ran, I am 234 years old, and I haven’t showered in the last 6 years,”

“Oh yeah, definitely not as good a liar as Azula,”

“So there really is an army out there that wants to help us end the war,”

“There really is,”

“Well okay then! Let’s go, Appa!” Aang shouts, rushing over to Appa who had decided to lay back down to sleep now that it was confirmed that this Lee guy wasn’t going to hurt them.

“I think we should wait until the morning, Appa seems pretty tired still,” Katara comments, pulling Aang away from the Byson.

“Alright, hey do you have a sleeping bag with you?” Aang asks, bouncing over to stand in front of Lee.

“Yes I do, thank you for listening to me and taking up my offer!”

“Whatever dude, I still don’t trust you,” Sokka comments pointing two fingers at his own eyes then pointing them towards the new guy, in a gesture symbolizing “I’m watching you,”, before moving to his own sleeping bag and laying down facing away from everyone else.

“Well I guess if he is telling the truth,” Katara mutters, before laying down as well, hoping to get at least a little rest before the sunrise.

Toph raises her stone tent and goes back to sleep promptly, one hand flat on the ground. Lee pulls out his mat and lays down close to the bush he came out of. And despite his trepidations, Sokka also falls asleep quickly, snoring away under the moonlight.

They had planned to set off a couple hours later, in the early morning.

Lee had said that he’d left the city 3 months ago, in order to search for Aang, though based off the map, without interruptions, they could get there in less than a week.

But when the time came to leave, Appa wouldn’t budge.

“What’s wrong Appa?” Aang asks. Appa lets out a loud groan, before laying back down on his side and falling back asleep. Aang turns to the rest of the group, “He’s still tired, we’re going to need to stay for a little longer”

“Still tired?! What?!” Sokka asked.

“We must’ve been keeping him up all night last night,” Katara comments.

“Yeah and we can catch up on our sleep on Appa, but he has to be awake the whole time we’re flying,”

Without much else to do, Katara encouraged Aang and Toph to train as long as the sun was still up, while Sokka and the new guy sit on the sides, he is sharpening his boomerang and Lee is watching the training. Overall, he seems pretty normal, but Sokka wouldn’t be fooled.

“Would you also like to train?” Lee asks.

“Huh?”

“I see you have a pretty neat sword there, I've got a set of dual dao with me,” He says, pointing a thumb towards his bag.

“Alright,” Sokka says, excited at an opportunity to defeat and embarrass this new guy. Show him not to mess with Sokka or anyone else because he could easily beat him. There’s no way this skinny twig could be better than Sokka after all the training he went through with Master Piandao.

They walk a little further away from where Aang’s training was happening, and begin. Lee rushes at him with his two swords, and Sokka blocks. They clash blades a couple more times but a stalemate never lasts long. Soon Lee was incorporating more moves into his fighting that were outside of normal sword moves. While Lee is up close he kicks out his left foot and unbalances Sokka, making him fall back on his butt.

“Ugh,” he groans rubbing the hurt area, he looks up seeing Lee smirking over him at having managed to make him fall, “Two can play at that game,” he mutters, throwing himself back up. Pushing Lee back with renewed vigor.

Lee only lets himself be pushed for a moment before jumping back to create some distance.

Sokka rushes at him, subtly pulling his boomerang out of his sheathe and throwing it right as he clashes with Lee again, they fight for a little longer and Sokka is almost worried that he’d lost Boomerang, when he sees it flying back at them out of the corner of his eye.

“This one’s payback,” he says cunningly at Lee’s confused face, and ducks as the boomerang hits Lee in the back with its blunt edge, making him trip over Sokka’s crouched form and fall.

Sokka stands back up as Lee begins to laugh, “That was good, really!” Lee compliments.

“Thanks!” Sokka says overly excited at the praise of his skills, “I mean, yeah, you know, I’ve just been training, this is nothing,” Sokka continues a lot more calmly.

“What is that weapon?” Lee asks getting up and picking up the boomerang on the way, studying it.

“This is my trusted boomerang, always comes back no matter where I throw it,” Sokka says, taking the boomerang back, posing with it, “What you guys don’t have something like this in the Fire nation?”

“No, well I’ve never seen something like that before, that's so curious!”

“Yeah, uh, thanks,” Sokka replies, rubbing the back of his neck shyly, “Your dual swords are pretty cool too,” he says. And he's not befriending him, it's just polite to compliment someone when they've complimented you first.

“Thanks… I got them from an old friend,” Lee answers looking down at his swords, “Would you like to go another round?” Lee asks.

“Hell yea!” Sokka says, throwing himself back into the training.

“Sokka! Lee!” They hear Aang yell and stop their training to look over at the boy who was running over to them.

“Aang? What’s up? Is your training over already?”

“Uhh well we decided to take an abrupt break, anyways Toph and I wanna head into the city, you guys wanna come?”

“Sure!” Sokka answers, Aang and Sokka turn Lee for his response.

“Umm alright,” he answers nervously.

“Alright!”

“Look at all those messenger hawks! You know, I've been thinking about getting one for myself. That way, I wouldn't have to talk to anyone. I could just send them messages,”

“I gotta say, I like the idea of not talking to you”

“They are lifelong companions you know, if you train them right,” Lee chimes in.

“So, guys. What are we gonna get with our last silver piece?” Aang asks.

“Do you have any coins with you, Lee?” Sokka asks.

“A few, though to be honest I was already running low by the time I ran into you, I have been traveling for quite a while now,”

“Forget that! We’ll just get more money, right there!” Toph comments, pointing to a table by which two men were sitting, gambling, with an audience surrounding them. “This is where you seeing people are at a disadvantage. Everyone guesses wrong because the dealer moves the rock at the last minute. But I can feel it with my earthbending”

“So the dealer is cheating?” Aang asks.

“How dishonorable,” Lee comments.

Toph approaches the dealer and of course wins the game, even when the price is increased through the inclusion of Sokka’s sword, something that Sokka didn’t feel very comfortable with despite his trust in her, she wins. They rush off with their money, heading back to market.

“Alright, gather around children, there’s some for everyone,” Toph says, handing out the money she’d made to the rest of the group.

“No thank you, I’d rather not,” Lee comments as she gets to him.

“Huh? Why not? After all the trouble we went through to get this,” Toph replies.

“I’d just rather not,”

“Oh well, more for us,” Toph says giving another third of her earnings to Sokka.

“Alright! Lets get some food!” Aang shouts, running off.

“Aang wait! Toph stay with him, we should at least stay in pairs,”

Toph nods and heads after Aang with a shout of “Twinkletoes!”

“Well I guess it’s just us now, we should go look at the meats!” Sokka comments heading off to the butcher merchant he had seen a couple streets back. Lee nods and follows.

“So why did you not want the money?”

“It’s not… right,”

“Well maybe it’s not the most morally right thing but the guy was cheating others! We just took the money from him that he stole off of others, besides Aang was fine with it and that kid is basically the poster child for doing the morally right thing,”

Lee frowns, “A 12-year-old shouldn’t be the one to make these decisions and be your guidance,”

“Well I guess not, but I don't really have anything against this. There’s a war going on, and we’ve got humanity’s savior with us, and his masters, and they need to eat. Ain’t no two ways about it,”

“We could’ve found food another way, harvesting and hunting, not to mention that I said I still had some coins left,”

“Listen dude if you have such a big thing against it why didn’t you say anything, before we even approached the dealer,”

Lee grumbles something under his breath.

“What was that?”

“I didn’t want to upset the avatar,”

“Bahahaha really? You didn’t say anything because you didn’t want to upset a 12-year-old?”

“The avatar’s cooperation is a vital part in ending this war!” Lee responds, “Only with us working together can we defeat Sozin and the current administration, that means sometimes having to compromise and keep my mouth shut about what I think,”

“Damn, that’s kind of mature,”

“Haha yeah, I’ve had to do a lot of growing up lately,” Lee comments solemnly.

Sokka nods in response, the war had forced a lot of people to grow up more quickly, just look at the rest of them.

“I know what you’re talking about,”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, ever since my dad left to fight in the war years ago, I’ve had to step up, be the man in the family, the man in my village,”

“I can’t imagine that was easy,”

“It wasn’t. But It was alright, I was still at home, and though I felt bad being left behind, being unable to join my dad in the fight, I was in a familiar environment, I had other adults I could rely on. Now I’m the oldest in the group and I have to be responsible for everything, though somehow I fuck up more things than I do right,” Sokka sighs, finding it easy to vent about his problems to Lee despite how unsure he still is about the other man.

“Hey that’s how it is sometimes,” Lee comments, “Can’t do everything right, that's impossible, even for your dad I bet,” Lee says chuckling, bumping shoulders with Sokka. Sokka smiles, bumping back into him and they rush off towards the butcher, picking up some steaks for dinner, as well as a mountain full of jerky, that Sokka already made a sizeable dent in as they waited for Toph and Aang to come back.

“You know I fucked up badly a lot too,”

“Yeah?”

“There was this one time, when I was training with the rest of the troops, and I was very unstable with my firebending, and I tried a new move I’d seen someone else do that I really wanted to replicate because it looked so cool, and I seriously hurt my partner,”

“Ouch,”

“Yeah, they forgave me and were healed, but I felt so ridiculously guilty, still do. I know now not to play around and try and show off, especially with fire.”

“Hmm,”

“There was this other time when I was acting really stubborn and-”

“Wait! You’re a firebender?!”

“Huh? Yeah did I not mention that, haha”

“No, you did not! Wow, that's great! You can teach Aang firebending!” Sokka says shooting up from the bench.

“Sokka keep your voice down,” Lee responds, pulling him back down by his sleeve, “Yes, I’m a firebender, but I’m really not that good. I just told you about how I messed up with my firebending training. I really think it’d be better for Aang to wait until we reach the stronghold, he can be taught there by some real experts,”

“Aw c’mon I’m sure you’re not that bad, besides even a little would help, and you wouldn’t even have to start from zero, he already learnt a lot from Uncle!”

“Uncle?”

“Yeah, his name’s Iroh and he’s actually the brother to the Fire Lord,” Sokka whispers conspiringly, unaware of how tense Lee had gotten, “He travelled with us for some time in the earth kingdom, taught Aang the whole breathing thing,”

“Wh-why?”

“Huh, why?”

“Why was he t-traveling with you? He’s a commander general,”

“Hey dude, you okay,”

“I’m fine,”

“Are you sure? Are you cold? You’re shivering,”

“I’m fine so please explain!”

“Alright, alright dude, I gotta say I don’t know why he betrayed the fire nation, or why he helped us, well I guess its because he also wanted to end this war. But I don’t really know everything, maybe you could ask Toph, they used to talk the most,”

“Hm… What happened?”

“We… had to leave him behind in Ba Sing Se. It was my fault really, I miscalculated… I fucked up the plan… I wasn’t thinking that Azula might’ve gotten ahead of us,”

“Not your fault, she can be quite unpredictable,” Lee comments grasping Sokka’s bicep, still staring frozen at the ground in front of him.

Sokka sighs, “Yeah, dude,”

“Besides it worked out in the end, didn’t it?”

“Huh? What do you mean?! We lost uncle, almost lost Aang-”

“And now the entire fire nation thinks you’re dead and you are able to freely travel through the Fire Nation in order to get to the palace,”

“Yeah but still Uncle-”

“Is probably fine, he’s tough, and the Firelord’s brother, chances are they didn’t even hurt him, just imprisoned him,” Lee says a shutter running through him, “Don't focus so much on what happened to get here, focus on the end result,” lee says smiling at him weakly, “Your plan might not have worked out the way you wanted it to, but ultimately it gave you a great advantage,”

“Yeah, thanks dude... You know if you don't want me to say anything to the others about your firebending I won't. Even if I do think that it really isn't as big a deal as you're making it out to be,"

"Yeah, but..."

"Is it because of that," Sokka asks bluntly, motioning towards Lee's scar.

"Uh..." Lee hesitates, holding a hand over his face, as Toph and Aang rush up to them, arms laden with groceries. Lee let's out a sigh at their arrival, grateful at not having to explain any further.

When Katara complained about their actions, Lee voiced his agreement. Which, though it did make Toph and Aang whine at him, got Katara’s approval, the only other one who had been somewhat suspicious of Lee. Though Sokka thinks that’s more because she’s suspicious of all fire nation people, rather than because this guy literally came out of a bush and offered to help them out of nowhere.

The next morning Toph insisted on staying in the city for a little longer, in order to earn some more money before they fly off, just in case, she had said. Katara was strongly against it, Lee silently backed her up. Toph, of course, went off anyway, and came back mid-afternoon, pockets filled. She got a good hashing out by both Katara and Sokka, though mainly Katara, and they were off much later than they would like. After only a couple hours of flight, as the sun lowered a fog rose, making it difficult to navigate. They had to settle down again, having barely gained any distance. At this rate, they’d get to that city after the day of the black sun had already passed. There was still about an hour of daylight left, and Aang and Toph headed off to the nearest town while Lee and Sokka trained together, and Katara trained on her own.

Aang and Toph came back far past sunset, after Lee helped a reluctant Katara prepare dinner.

“Well. Look who decided to join us. Where have you two been? Off scamming again?”

“Yes we were,” Toph answers.

“And I suppose you don’t think what you’re doing is dangerous at all?”

“No I don’t,”

“Really?”

“Yes, really!”

“They’re not always like this,” Sokka comments with a sigh.

“Oh?” Lee comments.

“Yeah it’s just,” he sighs, “they’re two very different people. And sometimes they clash heads. But don’t worry they’ll get over this and everything will be fine, they’ll be stronger than ever,”

“Hmm, right,” He says as Hawky screeches on Sokka’s shoulder.

Sokka sighs, “Yeah, you’re right, Hawky,”

An hour later saw the boys attempting to talk Katara and Toph into making up. Lee held himself out of this, as he didn’t know the two all too well, while Sokka and Aang attempted to make the girls understand about each other. And it worked well, in the morning they had agreed to do one final scam together before completely focusing on the city, for which Lee seemed grateful for, their continued arguments had stunted their journey and he’d seemed very stressed over it, even when Sokka had told him they still had time.

However when the girls didn’t return even after three hours, he got worried.

“Do you think this scam of theirs should be taking this long?” Aang asks.

“I was just wondering the same thing. We’d better check it out. You two behave,” he says pointing at Hawky and Momo, “Appa’s in charge,”

“Why is this place so deserted?” Aang asks, as they walk around the town square.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Sokka comments and Lee humms in agreement.

“Sokka watch out!” Aang shouts as he grabs both him and Lee and dodge a blast from the three eyed man that had been after him.

“Who’s this?!” Lee asks.

“I don’t know! This guy has been following us for a while!”

“Yeah we don’t even know his name!” Sokka responds, as the assassin jumps down from the roof and fires another blast at them, which they barely dodge. “Maybe… Sparky-Sparky-Boom Man!”

“That sounds like a terrible name!” Lee shouts, as the assassin turns towards, his third eye lighting up.

“I don’t think he liked it either!” Aang comments.

They hide behind a cartful of cabbages, “Alright Lee and I go right, Aang you go left, We’ll attack together, hopefully overwhelm him,” the two nod in confirmation as the cart gets blown up.

Sokka runs at him, hoping Lee is at his side like he said he’d be. He pulls out his sword, as the assassin turns towards him. And from Sokka’s right a fireball flies towards the man’s face, which quickly extinguishes. Sokka runs up his sword in hand, but the assassin blocks his hit with a dagger. They exchange two more blows, before the assassin grabs him with his free hand, and throws him back. Tui and La this guy was strong.

“Sokka!” he hears, before falling onto a gangly pile of limbs. “Are you okay?” Lee asks.

“Yeah. Ow that hurt.” He exclaims. “Not only can he shoot lasers from his forehead, but he’s got the strength of a gorilla-bear. Did you see that? He blocked my sword with one dagger!”

“Yeah I saw,” Lee answers, looking back at the assassin which was now walking towards them. Suddenly a series of cabbages fly at the assassin’s head, making him stumble and turn around, seeing Aang on his other side, arms laden with cabbages. Grinning and running away.

“That idiot,” Sokka sighs as the assassin runs after Aang. “Agh,” he groans, getting up. He turns around holding out a hand to Lee, which he takes, pulling him up. “Lets go!” He shouts as they rush after the assassin and their friend.

Skidding to a halt when they find the assassin’s head encased in ice, Aang lying below him, as well as Katara and Toph running up to them from another direction.

“Aang, get up!” Katara yells, helping Aang up as they run away.

“Let’s get out of here,”

The assassin breaks the ice with brute force, and prepares to launch another blast at the group, before he can Lee fires off another fireball temporarily blinding him, allowing Toph to launch a boulder at him. He blocks this boulder with another blast, but the boulder splits into smaller pebbles and one manages to hit him directly on his third eye, stopping him. He attempts to fire again but instead ignites the air around him and is thrown back, head-first into a wall. The group uses this time to escape.

“Hey, I got it! The perfect name for that guy: Combustion Man!”

“I didn’t know you could firebend, Lee!” Aang exclaims excitedly as they finally relax on Appa’s back after having successfully escaped the three eyed man.

“Ah, yeah…”

“You should’ve told me! You can train me!”

“Oh I don’t know…"

“Pleaseeee” Aang whines.

“Leave him alone, Aang, besides there’s gotta be plenty of people at the secret city that can teach you in his stead,”

“Oh, yeah, I guess,” Aang says temporarily appeased.

“Wow since when were you two such great friends” Katara teases.

“W-we’re not! Just saying!”

“Three days ago it was all, we ‘we can’t trust this guy, he could be dangerous, this could be a trap, blah blah’,”

“I still believe that! This could still be a trap! But he still shouldn’t have to do something he doesn’t want to,” Sokka answers.

“How do you know there’s all these great firebending masters waiting in the resistance city,” Aang asks. 

“H-he told me,” Sokka answers with a pout, “He told me this story of how he was being taught firebending at the city, and he hurt his friend, and he felt bad but then his friend was healed so it was all good,”

“Wow interesting story,” Toph says sarcastically.

“I was paraphrasing!” Sokka answers exasperated as they chuckle at his antics.

Katara stops him, “Wait did you say healed?” she asks turning towards Lee, who had been enjoying the exchange.

“Yeah…” he answers.

“Like, not just treated with herbs and ointments, but healed?”

“Yeah”

“Like waterbender type healed?”

“Yeah”

“You know waterbenders?!”

“I know several, there’s quite a few that are living in our city”

“What?!” everyone shouts simultaneously.

“How long have there been waterbenders in your city? And where did they come from?”

“Well as long as I’ve been there,” Lee admits, “Which to be fair has been barely two years. As far as I know a lot of them were rescued from the waterbender jails that used to be set up all over the fire nation, a lot of them are also their descendants,”

“Could that mean-”

“Mom?!” Sokka and Katara ask simultaneously.

“Huh?”

“Hey did you ever meet a woman called Kya, she’s got blue eyes, black hair?”

“That describes a lot of women in the water tribe. Do you know anything else? Height? Maybe distinctive features or marks?”

“No… I can hardly remember her face…”

“Well, hey we won’t know anything until we get there, but at least we know there are more southern water tribe benders out there!” Aang cheers them up.

“Yeah,” Katara says.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that I didn't upload in January, I didn't have internet for a couple weeks. I still dont, but I felt bad about keeping you guys waiting so Im posting this from my phone, which is kinda annoying. Sorry for any errors.


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